


Wherever you are, I'll come to you

by Aida666



Series: Good Omens freeform [1]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Anxious Aziraphale (Good Omens), Armageddon, Aziraphale and Crowley in Love (Good Omens), Bottom Aziraphale (Good Omens), Freeform, Friendship/Love, Good Omens References, Hurt Crowley, Ineffable Husbands (Good Omens), Ineffable Idiots (Good Omens), Jealous Crowley (Good Omens), Leaving, M/M, Protective Crowley, Queerplatonic Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens), Slow Burn, Soulmates, Temptation, The Ineffable Plan (Good Omens), Top Crowley (Good Omens), Worried Aziraphale (Good Omens), afterarmageddon, crowley - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-07-20 05:40:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 24,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19987021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aida666/pseuds/Aida666
Summary: It’s been almost whole six months since they stopped the whole Armageddon thingy and even though Aziraphale is more than happy they did it, he still had hard time when it came to coping with the fact he is no longer welcomed to Heaven.And so he "runs away" from London unintentionally  setting another prophecy into motion.Will Crowley and the rest be able to save him before it's too late?





	1. We need to talk (Prologue ?)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello y'all, 
> 
> I decided to create this miniseries mainly because I am such a sucker for Good Omens and really sad that there's just 1 season of it (so far).  
> Hope y'all like it, give some feedback if possible, ok? :)
> 
> (Also not native so sorry for bad English :/ :) )

It’s been almost whole six months since they stopped the whole Armageddon thingy and even though Aziraphale was more than happy they did it, he still had a hard time when it came with the fact he is no longer welcomed to Heaven.

They still haven’t contacted him in any way whatsoever and frankly, Aziraphale didn’t take it as easily as he tried to seem in front of Crowley. They’ve been spending a lot of time together lately. Life was good. However, the fact he for the first time in his life didn’t have a purpose made him uneasy. Being angel was all he knew for 6 000 years, for God’s sake! Well, technically he still was an angel - but no connections to Heaven.

It’s been on Aziraphale’s mind for quite a while, the thought so scary he didn’t even dare to say it out loud. But that particular morning, when he woke up in his lovely bookshop, he knew - this is the day. Today he has to say Crowley what’s up. At first, he planned he’d just do it without telling the demon about it, but he knew Crowley would turn the whole world upside down.

There was no other choice, but to tell him. And so Aziraphale did what he usually does when it comes to stuff like this and contacted Crowley to ‚tempt him to a spot of lunch‘. Of course, Crowley was ready to go, which meant that no longer than half an hour they were sitting at their table at the Ritz. Aziraphale was eating his favorite crapes while Crowley was just sitting and watching him, his snake eyes hidden behind dark glasses.

„What is it?“ Crowley broke the silence after Aziraphale finished his meal.

„Er,… Haha, that was delicious,“ Aziraphale murmured as he patted his face with a napkin.

„Aziraphale,“ Crowley repeated firmly.

„Yes?“

„What’s going on?“

Aziraphale looked up to see Crowley’s face, twisted with hardly hidden worries. He couldn’t help but screw his own face too. Still, he found a strength to smile softly before speaking up quietly; „ ..let’s take a walk, shall we?“

Ten minutes later, they were slowly reaching the gazebo in the middle of St. James‘ park. Neither of them spoke a word, the tension was hard to miss. Aziraphale stole a look at the demon walking beside him in his characteristic manner. The whole world had to notice him when he walks by.

After they finally made it to the gazebo, Crowley growled in impatience.

„Will you finally tell me, what’s going on with you?“ He said, pacing around the gazebo like a trapped lion.

„Well…,“ Aziraphale looked down on his hands, „.. I... This whole situation with saving the world and being kicked out of our sides,“ he waved his hands around, trying to maintain a happy smile, „has been a bit too much for me. You know, I am the good guy and I shouldn’t be against the Great plan…“

„And?“ Crowley raised his eyebrows, obviously not catching on. He finally stopped pacing and instead placed his hands on the railing by the side of his friend, his eyes searching the park and all its visitors.

„Look... I - I have to leave for a while, just... Just to gather my thoughts, and cope with the new state of things." 

„Like... Leave London? Why?“ Crowley spat out, catching the angel’s unsettling gaze.

„No, not just London... I have to leave England... Maybe this planet... I don’t know yet,“ he laughed as if it was a joke, however his eyes were glassy.

Crowley snapped his head in the angel’s direction, shock written all over his face. This was too much.

After quite a while, Crowley nodded his head firmly and turned to Aziraphale, who was currently once again scanning his hands.

„Okay, where are we heading?“ Crowley asked as if this was a conversation about the weather.

„We?“ Aziraphale looked up, confused, „.. You are not coming with me, Crowley,“ he mumbled, maintaining eye contact. Even though seeing the painful change of expression on his friend’s face was almost enough to break his heart, he had to look him in the eyes - after all, they were saying goodbyes.

„Where will you go?“ Crowley asked he was in visible distress, once again pacing around the gazabo, „I will visit you or I can check in on you every other week or I can at least give you a lift or-„

„Crowley!“ Aziraphale had to raise his voice to stop Crowley’s flow of questions, „no... I want to be alone.. at least for a while,“ he finished softly.

Crowley stopped pacing, instead, he just stared at the angel in disbelief, his own face screwed in confusion and pain.

„Why? What the hell do you miss about Heaven? They never did any good for you so what’s the point anyway?!“ He suddenly shouted, waving his hands as he spoke to make the point clear.

„You don’t get it you never wanted to be in Hell in the first place,“ Aziraphale got out of himself, it wasn’t much more than just a whimper.

„Oh please, you don’t want to be in Heaven any more than I want to be down there!“

„Maybe, but I’ve been a part of it for more than 6 000 years I can’t walk away just like that!“ Aziraphale stomped his feet like a distressed kid, eyes more watery than minutes ago. It was too hard already.

„Fine... When you’ll be back?“ Crowley sighed, rubbing his forehead.

The silence that came after his question was the hardest one they ever shared, only slowly everything clicked and Crowley turned his sight back to the angel, „ _when_ you gonna be back?“ he repeated the question more demanding this time.

Aziraphale looked around, a few runners in the distance and kids screaming at the playground, the sun that was shining just minutes ago was now covered with heavy clouds. The storm was near. A big one.

„When.Are.You.Gonna.Be.Back?“ Crowley moved closer, blocking the only way out, he needed to know.

„I don’t know,“ Aziraphale mumbled, taking a step back, his eyes never leaving the ground.

„Bullshit!“ Crowley snapped suddenly.

When Aziraphale looked at the demon, he could see the pain even behind his dark glasses. He knew it’d be bad, but this bad? Crowley seemed like he’ll blow up any second now.

„I - I will call you, it won’t be that bad, it’s not like we’d repeat the 14th century,“ Aziraphale got a forced giggle out of himself, clasping his hands.

„You really believe that,“ Crowley stated, voice barely hearable as he stood straight, taking a last look at the angel before leaving the gazebo. 

„Crowley!“ Aziraphale called after him, scared he would leave angry. That’s never good. But he didn’t turn, he didn’t even flinch. He kept walking away and when he reached the first of the trees that marked the road, the clouds let down the first wave of heavy rain.

Aziraphale was still watching the road on which the Crowley walked away from him, even long after he was gone out of the sight. He repeated once again to himself that it’s the rain that stops him from leaving too, but it would take less than a very observing eye to spot a sad man in a weird creamy suit, silently crying in a gazebo in the middle of St. James‘ park.


	2. The letter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter we get to see the confused and painful coping mechanism of Crowley after Aziraphale really had left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter is here because I just couldn't help myself. Hope you'll find at least a bit you like about this and if so please leave some feedback. 
> 
> Thank you, enjoy! 😊

It was close to midnight when Crowley got back to his apartment after visiting the angel's book shop a day after their conversation. He couldn't believe Aziraphale really meant what he had said. He couldn't just leave like that.. Or could he?

Apparently, he could, and he did, because when Crowley arrived on the spot where the bookshop always stood- there was nothing. Well, technically there were two other shops; grocery store and some music shop. It seemed as if they stood there ever since this city was built.  
Aziraphale meant it.

After this realization, Crowley did everything he could think of to locate that idiot and bring him back home. They had kind of radar for each other so it was never trouble when he needed to find him in the past, but for some reason when he tried it that day, it simply did not spot anything. Better - anyone.

So Crowley did what he does best and after few hours of aimless driving through rainy London he hit a pub, but drinking there reminded him of the angel even more. Eventually, he just relocated into his empty flat. To drink in peace.

By the time he sat down on his iconic chair, half of the bottle of good scotch whiskey had already been gone. And it wasn't even his first today. Thanks to the amounts of alcohol in his blood the whole world seemed blurry and fuzzy. Crowley usually enjoyed it. But not today.

He wouldn't stress over the angel's leaving, after all, there had been decades when they haven't seen each other for. But this time - it was different. Maybe it was because of how distressed Aziraphale was this time. Or it was thanks to the fact the angel was everything Crowley had left. Or he maybe got too attached. Too used to him being around all the time lately.

His sight landed on the plants. They were pretty much trembling with fear - as usual. For some reason he stood up to, grasping the water sprinkle bottle in his hand. It's time to water the plants.

Humming in distress he started the usual procedure, plants trembling more than other days. They had to know something's wrong.

Crowley's mind was focused on the watering so much he almost overlooked one tiny brown leaf on one of the bigger plants. Almost.

"What is that?" He spoke slowly, looking around on all of the plants. The shaking leaves gave no answer whatsoever.

"What did I tell you about this?!" He raised his voice, clenching his teeth as he took threw the sprinkle bottle on the ground.

"FINE! I GAVE YOU A CHANCE! I CARED FOR YOU AND THIS IS YOUR PAYBACK?! THIS?!!" He held up the plant to the level of his snake eyes.

By the state at which those plants were now, one could say there was a tornado in Crowley's apartment. And this good person wouldn't be too far from the truth. There indeed was one. Going on inside of Crowley's head. He still had a hard time understanding the overwhelming emotions. Even after 6000 years he still didn't have a clue.

"I WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS!" He yelled as he threw the plant on the ground. Other plants didn't have much time to tremble some more because Crowley practically jumped on them and ripped them to pieces.

After it was all done, he fell on his knees, breathing heavily.

"Why?" He mumbled, looking up as if he was trying to reach God.

"Why would you take him from me?"

No answer. As usual. The good ol' Almighty was silent. That made Crowley even angrier. He clenched his fists as he stood up groggily.

"Quiet as usual, are we?" He smiled venomously.

"You bastard! You fucking bastard! I never even wanted anything from you!! Why would you take him away???!" He screamed, not really caring about who's gonna hear him. Not anymore.

No response.

Crowley remained in that position for some more, breathing even more heavily, before falling onto his chair. Out of nowhere the tears just started falling down his cheeks.

Aziraphale was gone without a trace. There was no way of founding him. He could be gone forever for all that Crowley knew.

Eventually, exhausted by the cry, he fell into an uneasy sleep with weird dreams including Aziraphale and deep blue sea.

  
The next morning Crowley woke up determined to do whatever it takes to find Aziraphale. And so he picked up the phone and dialed a random number, knowing he'll be connected to whoever he wants to speak to anyway.

"Sergeant Whitchhunter Shadwell," the rough accent was even stronger through the phone.

"It's me, I need to find someone," Crowley breathed out, looking around his apartment. The plants shattered on the floor pointed out the guilt of last night more than anything.

"Crowley?"

"Yes, who else would it be? Satan?!" He said impatiently.

"No.. No, I am just surprised."

"Well zip it, I need to find someone. Meet me at the usual spot at five," Crowley couldn't help but say it rather aggressively. He had no time for this bullshit.

"I- I am out of London now, there's no way I'd be there on time."

"Oh, you better be."

The dark tone was enough Shadwell needed to know he had to get back.

By five o'clock Crowley already sat at the table in Dinner's, bouncing his leg in distress. Today people annoyed him more than ever. He usually has a great understanding of their little selfish lives, but today everything about their unlimited stupidity and simplicity set him to the rage.  
If Aziraphale was there he'd probably say something along the lines of how people are good and interesting and lovely or sum other shit. But he wasn't there.  
This thought pierced Crowley's heart with yet another wave of sadness.

Before he had a chance to think about it further, a chair across of his was being pulled back, for Shadwell sitting down seconds ago.

"Hello, Mr. Crowley," Shadwell greeted him politely, but for some reason avoided eye contact of any sort.

"I need to find Aziraphale."

The way Shadwell's face screwed the moment he heard it gave away the impression that he already knew this.

"Shadwell," Crowley said darkly, leaning closer to the old man. His eyes were like flames behind those glasses.

"Um?" Shadwell mumbled, rather awkwardly. He kept his gaze at his old wrinkled hands, shaking ever so slightly.

"Do you know where he is?" Crowley asked, slowly and carefully.

"No!"

"Shadwell, where is he?" The tone of Crowley's voice was dangerously close to screaming.

"I don't know," Shadwell chuckled, looking up for the first time.

"Shut up!" Crowley growled.

"I don't know where he is. I promise."

Crowley scanned this old man in front of him. He really didn't know where the angel was, but he obviously knew something else.

"Shadwell, what do you know?"

"What? Nothing!" The way Shadwell spat it out was too desperate. His sight traveling around the Dinner's. Once again avoiding eye contact.

"Tell me, for fuck's sake!" Crowley snapped, punching the table as he leaned closer to the old man. Ready to grab him by his old filthy coat if necessary.

"I.. The angel.. He spoke to me before he left," Shadwell said with a great sigh.

Crowley's eyes went wide, he couldn't believe this just went completely past him.

"Woao..ha..huh.. Why didn't you tell me right away?! Did he tell you where is he going?! What did he tell you? Where is that idiot?!" Crowley didn't even realize he held Shadwell by the sides of his coat, their faces uncomfortably close.  
Shadwell's eyes were widened with fear of possible death being so near.

Crowley let go of him and collapsed back to his chair. This was hopeless. Aziraphale was gone and there was nothing he could do to bring him back.

"Look, I don't know where he headed but he told me to give you this," Shadwell said with empathy filling his voice.

Crowley looked up, he saw an envelope with his name written on it the difficult cursive only Aziraphale used these days.His shaking hand reached for the envelope, bringing it to him like a newborn Antichrist.

"Look, Mr. Crowley," Shadwell said, already standing up, " I know it's non of my business, but you should leave him alone if he wants to be left alone."

The gaze Crowley gifted him, after his rather annoying advice was enough for him to turn on his heels and leave that place behind.

Crowley, on the other side, didn't care for Shadwell and his feeling at all. His whole attention was focused on the yellowish envelope in his still shaky hand.

No one knew why that gentleman dressed in black head to toe stormed out of the local with such a pained expression after reading a list of paper. However, if we should be completely correct, no one really cared. It was London. And it was people who we talk about. No one cared.


	3. The arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aziraphale arrives to his final destination to enjoy some so much needed alone time. However his demons - or one particular demon's shadow - finds him even there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, for the third time today! 
> 
> Well, what can I say, this writes itself. I am kind of proud of this, especially because I wasn't able to write more than few sentences lately (writer's block yaaay). 
> 
> Anyway, hope you guys will enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it. 
> 
> And if yes, please leave some feedback. 
> 
> Once again sorry for bad English, not native. 
> 
> Enjoyyyy!

_What a lovely day!_

  
Aziraphale thought to himself when he picked up his luggage at the airport. He couldn't stop smiling. This was new. He had never been to this part of the world. Which was odd, if we consider he'd been around for more than 6000 years.

He turned around just in time to catch the last glimpse of a ginger man dressed all in black. His heart skipped a beat - Crowley!

After a few very hurried yet discreet steps, he realized that the man wasn't Crowley at all. Still, he couldn't ignore the skip of his heartbeat when he, seconds ago, thought that man was the demon. It sent shivers down his spine and his stomach felt like if it had butterflies inside.  
He hated it. He hated he reacted this way. Well, it wasn't exactly hate what he felt because as an angel he really wasn't capable of such an emotion. It was an annoyance, to say the least.

Shaking his head over his feelings, he grabbed his luggage and left the airport behind as quickly as possible.

Minutes later, when he finally found a lift to his destination, he couldn't help but wonder what does Crowley do and if he is alright.

He had to admit the guilt of leaving Crowley behind was something he had to add on his list of things he had to cope with.

But as for now - he just really wanted to get to the destination and get some delicious food.

  
That same evening, when he finally unpacked most of his things and found a really cozy blanket at the back of the closet, he sat down by the fireplace with a book in his hand.

The fire was cracking peacefully, sending strange shadows all around the otherwise dark room. The cup of tea on the table smelled like Heaven itself if Heaven had any scent, to begin with, and the book in his hands was at least half as old as himself.

His pure intensions were almost aesthetic - he just wanted to read, drink good English tea and maybe forget about all that had happened so far. At least for a while.

However, destiny, or ol' Almighty, or whatever you want to call it had obviously different plans for the poor angel.

The ringing phone scared Aziraphale almost to death - metaphorically. He stood up, uncertain if he shall pick up. Eventually, he decided it would do no harm as the only person knowing his current phone number was good Mr. Shadwell.

"Hello?" He announced, trying so hard to keep his shaky voice under control.

"It is me, I'm calling just to inform ya that the letter was handed already."

A quiet sigh escaped Aziraphale's lips, "great, that's .. Great. How did he.. How did he take it?"

There was silence for a few unsettling seconds, Aziraphale was afraid for a moment that maybe the old phone stopped working, but then Mr. Shadwell coughed in embarrassment.

"I didn't stick around after, ya know I really didn't wanna be there after.." Shadwell left the sentence unfinished, he probably didn't feel like finishing it was necessary.

"Oh, right. I understand completely, thank you, good man," He said, voice shaky once again. He knew what's gonna happen now and he didn't like it one bit.

"No problem... Hope you'll be well soon," Shadwell mumbled, voice strangely soft.

"Yes, sure I will. Thank you, take care and send my regards to dear Jezabel."

"Oi, she's not Jezabel anymore-"

"I-I know, I'm sorry. Thank you again, that will be all."

He hung up before Shadwell could say another word. It was, in fact, quite a rude gesture, but anyone who ever was in his situation shall forgive him this behavior.

The truth is, he wasn't able to 'block' the radar. It simply wasn't possible. It was a thing as old as the Universe and he didn't have the skills and classification to "turn it off". The most he could do was to hide from the radar. That was the good news. The bad news was that whatever anyone 'sent' him was received.

Usually, they send him just daily reminders or locating code or something of this form. Or at least they used to before... Anyway, it's formal and quite official. No need to get personal with his coworkers, not that he didn't give it a try.

The thing is that with Crowley, he didn't just get the 'messages' which mainly were just locating codes, he also had to experience Crowley's emotions.  
He never learned what had caused this glitch in the Universe, it was just like that.

Whenever Crowley felt overwhelming emotions a snippet of it was kind of automatically sent to Aziraphale. It wasn't very common though - 80 or 95 cases ever since they met - and it was limited to the bad feelings only. He never really discussed it with Crowley, not that they weren't close to this conversation in the past, he just didn't know how to start. It wasn't exactly something you discuss on a daily basis.

Aziraphale knew he didn't have much time before yet another wave of negative emotions run over his body like a possessive snake.

And really, he just managed to sit down when a wave of utter grief and anger ran over him like a train. It was such a strong one, Aziraphale instinctively gasped for air.  
The pain, the feeling of incredible loss and hopelessness was far worse than any other snippet of emotion he ever received from the demon.

Crowley was hurting. Bad. A part of Aziraphale wanted to pack up his things and catch the first flight back to London, but the other part of him, more rational one if we may call it like that, held him glued to a spot.

Eventually, it stopped. As quickly as it appeared before. Aziraphale, shaking all over his body, stood up rather carefully and headed towards the door.

He knew it was dangerous to get out in the middle of the night like that, but the need for fresh air was stronger than any sense of surviving.

And so, before he knew it, he found himself standing on the porch of his landed house, staring into the deep dark night around.

The sound of waves crashing to the fjords in persistent dance coming to him from the distance brought somewhat of peace to his soul.

Breathing in as deeply as he could, he looked around. There wasn't much to look at. Besides endless meadows and fjords in the distance, there was nothing. Nada.

The good people of the village a few miles to the East had no idea what's coming to the otherwise peaceful area. None of them, sleeping happily in their beds, could even imagine what the future holds for all of them.

If we were about to evaluate the future events we would have to come up with a brand new word. Because the events that future held for this piece of the world were so unbelievable and magical if you will that no word can describe.

Maybe the stars had their idea, they have certainly been placing bets on what shall happen next - but none of them really knew.

Not even ol' Almighty, even though it was widely believed he knew everything and is in charge of everything.

The naked truth is much more simple than that - the Universe has its ways and plans with whatever it contains. Plans not even Heaven nor Hell could do a thing about.  
Not that both sides hadn't been trying to mess with the destiny ever since the beginning. It seems like the Universe had for its plans for all of them. Ineffable plans, of course. 

Eventually, Aziraphale got back to the house, locking the door behind him, as he got back to the book and great English tea.  
It was enough of worrying for today.


	4. Careful driver for a reason

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened after Shadwell left and Crowley was left alone with the letter? 
> 
> Also why is Crowley suddenly such a careful driver?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi y'all,
> 
> This it the 4th chapter, I hope you enjoy it so far. I have such big plans for this piece of writing! 
> 
> Anyway I usually enjoy it and leave some feedback if you like. :)

What happened after Shadwell left would to an inexperienced observer seem like a man reading a love letter from his spouse. Which, frankly, wouldn’t be too far away from the truth. If they would be an experienced observer, such as the usuals of shady pubs, they would almost surely notice the guy in black has some weird-ass eyes.

Luckily, no one glanced at the man, not even once. People in London were used to all kinds of bizarre things and they simply had enough of their own lives to be concerned with anybody else.

Crowley sat at the chair, moving the envelope on the desk of the table with his index finger. His eyes fixed on it as if the glare itself could reveal all of its secrets. He knew, he eventually has to read it, obviously, yet he struggled to find the courage to do so.

Two glasses of premium scotch later, he finally grasped the envelope in his hand. Ready to open it, no matter what’s inside.

„What’s inside? It’s an envelope, of course, it’s gonna be a letter! What else would it be? A duck…!?“ Crowley mumbled, annoyed with himself and his reluctance.

With a swift twitch, he opened the envelope to find a letter inside, indeed. He immediately recognized the angel’s hand writing, the pompous capital letters, and unnecessary arcs and loops as well as the slight tilt to the right.

He couldn’t help but bit his bottom lip, almost painfully before he forced himself to the actual reading.  
And this is what the letter contained, a word from word;

_Dearest Crowley,_

  
_I am so deeply sorry for leaving in such a rush, without discussing it with your first. I wish I could stay in London, I will miss my bookshop, the overall atmosphere of this place and lastly, but not less importantly, you._

  
_It’s hard to express the emptiness inside of me, especially if you have never felt it. The way I do. Don’t you worry about me, everything is absolutely tickety boo, I may not be, however, I appel on you to not search for me, no matter how much help do you think I might need. All I need right now is to be alone._

  
_Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy your company and I certainly will miss you whenever I head to, but I need this. It is best for me._

_Please do understand that I do not want to be found under any circumstances. I firmly believe you will find your own way how to cope with this unexpected turn of events. You are the stronger one after all, ha._

  
_Heavens… There is so much I have on my mind right now, dear friend, however, I can not find words to express it. I have no doubt you will eventually understand that this is the best solution for everyone involved._

  
_I will be alright, please do not worry about my wellbeing while I’m gone. I will find my ways to let you know I’m okay since I blocked the radar... But I suppose you know already. P_ l _ease do not take any of those events personally, as I know you will, this has nothing to do with you. It’s purely on me. It has always been._

_Well, I think this is it. Goodbye. I am being completely honest when I say, I will miss you. Being around you for such a long time was indeed an uplifting experience. And don’t worry we will meet again. Until then, goodbye, dear friend!_

_P.S.: Please don’t do any harm to good Mr. Shadwell, he is just a messenger of my soul._

_P.P.S.: I left you a gift on our meeting spot. Please treat it kindly (I know you are capable of it.)_

_With love,_

_Aziraphale_

  
The St. Jame’s park was quiet as if everyone had left already. And why wouldn’t they? It’s close to the hour of demons, no one wanted to be around for this. Except for one demon who rather crazily hurried to the gazebo in the middle of the park.

At first, he didn't spot a thing, and he searched everywhere. For a minute there he even thought that this was some kind of twisted joke. Because in Crowley's mind he saw only one possible gift, he wanted - angel's location. Or, preferably, the angel right back in London.

His frustration became almost overwhelming when he decided to leave and just screw the whole thing.

Only as he was about to leave a metallic flash between two of the beams that held the gazebo together caught his eye.

He grabbed the package to see it's in fact a gift box no bigger than Rubik's cube, wrapped in silvery wrapping paper and it had a tartan bow at the top.  
Crowley couldn't help but chuckle bitterly over the tartan bow.

"Bastard," he murmured as he shoved the gift deep to his pocket and left the park in a few quick steps.

  
Minutes later, Crowley already sat in his car, the gift right in front of him on the dashboard.

Crowley's eyes, now visible since he took off his glasses, were unnaturally gloomy in the dime light of a nearby street lamp.

There was some type of inner argument going inside of Crowley's mind. One could notice thanks to the way his hands were squeezing the wheel, knuckles white because of the pressure.

Crowley laid his head on his hands, breathing deeply, trying to figure out what should he do now. Probably take a look at the 'gift', perhaps?

He looked up and ripped the paper of that stupid gift. It was a cardboard box. Crowley frowned in confusion before he opened it.

Inside he found black flowerpot, with clay and with what seemed like a freshly 'born' plant. It was so tiny.

Carefully he took the flowerpot out of the box, with it something fell into his lap.  
It was a flier.

_Lambertia Formosa_

_Highly reactive flower from South America, also known as The devil's flower is a plant with aggressive red petals and characteristic smell..._

Crowley shoved the flier back in the box which he then proceeded to throw in the back of his Bentley.

"Lambertia.." He mumbled, shaking his head as he placed the flowerpot onto his coffee cup holder - new installation - and took off to drive home.

That night there wasn't more careful and steady driver than the gentleman in black Bentley.

Later when asked about it, there was various version of what might have caused such a rapid change of the behavior of the driver of the black car. Optimists said he finally matured and recognized his wrongs to be a responsible adult now. Pessimists said he was simply messing around before he hits somebody.a

Some of the good people of London even went as far as to claim that the Bentley had to be stolen.

One way or another, all of them were more than in awe from the sudden change of usual habits of the gentleman, mainly because as far as they knew this car was sent to London from hell. And the driver was a crazy person, not afraid of death nor justice.

But that night, Crowley drove his Bentley as if he had a newborn in there. He was a careful driver for a reason that night. Because the little plant peacefully sitting on the cupholder was kind of a promise. So no one could blame Crowley for that little devilish smile while bringing it with himself as well as the final decision about the whole Aziraphale situation.


	5. Unexpected visitor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Who is this charming gentleman that appeared in front of Aziraohale's door and why is he hiking in a suit?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, 
> 
> Not really satisfied with this chapter but for fillers it really had to be done. 
> 
> Hope you'll like it, if so leave some feedback, please. 
> 
> Enjoy..?

The village a few miles to the East, we mentioned earlier, was just like any other village in the world. Not special, not much different from your usual village.

Still, it had its unique charm, little houses with bright red roots, small roads, nice people who for some reason still cared. But not enough to notice the young man in a suit that appeared in the middle of Fleewis' street on one particularly busy morning.

Except for one little girl, that later had a hard time explaining to her mother why she yelled at the top of her lungs when they were passing by him. She'd swear the man had fangs the way vampires do and gloomy bright red eyes, but sure enough, stressed moms don't normally believe kids when it comes to magic creatures.

The young gentleman fixed his tie with a smile on his face and headed West, with a walk of someone who is way too sure about his appearance.

No one noticed two shadowy figures, standing by the corner, watching the whole scene with rather curious facial expressions, either.

"Do you think he'll handle it?" Asked the taller one.

"He has to, after all, he proved himself in the past, quite a lot." Answered the shorter figure, sniffing loudly.

"I hope so, we are running out of time."

Both of them nodded in mutual agreement and vanished into the brisk morning air.

A few miles to the West Aziraphale just sat down for breakfast, when the feeling of uneasiness settled upon him. He couldn't quite locate where did it came from but he knew it's never a good sign.  
Something is coming.

"Oh, I sure do hope Crowley didn't do anything stupid," He mumbled to himself out of habit as he stood up from the table.  
Covering his mouth with a hand he looked out of the window, worries written all over his face as he stared out to the distance.

The thoughts about how's Crowley hasn't left his mind practically ever since he landed here. He did his best to focus on himself and himself only, but the thoughts were more persistent with each passing day.

Out of nowhere, a huge storm followed with heavy rain started outside. Aziraphale flinched, taken back by the sudden change of the weather.

"What's this again?" He frowned, more to himself.

A loud knocking on the door interrupted his train of thoughts, catching him weirdly vulnerable.

"Who is it?" He called on his way to the door. Sure enough, no response came and so Aziraphale being himself opened the door without waiting much longer.

Behind the door stood a young man with dark hair dripping water on his brand new suit, which was frankly soaking too.  
He was tall and with skin so pale, he looked like a Vampire.

"Hello sir, I was just on a hike when the storm came and I am quite uncomfortable with going on with the hike in weather such as this, would you mind if I waited for it off in here?" He smiled, showing off his perfect teeth.

Aziraphale stared at him, not quite sure what should he do.

"Please..?" Added the guy with another breathtaking smile, looking down at poor angel, who immediately blushed.

"Oh.. Of course, come in," Aziraphale almost yelled, when he 'woke up'.

He stepped aside, letting the soaking wet man into his house.

"I'm Damien, by the way," the guy said, offering his hand right as the door closed behind him.

"Aziraphale, nice to meet you,"

After shaking hands, Aziraphale offered him some coffee and dry clothes.  
While Damien was changing in the bathroom, he happily prepared yet another coffee, not really thinking about anything besides how it's nice to not be alone in here for at least a while.

He was more than prepared to get as much as possible out of this encounter.  
Still here there was one thing, that wasn't quite adding up - he went on a hike in a suit?

Aziraphale was so deep in his own thoughts he totally missed when Damien came back to the kitchen.

"So? How do I look?" He laughed, looking so young in the creamy sweater and pants of the same color.  
His dark hair was still wet, though.

"Good," Aziraphale nodded, taking a short look at him, "sugar?"

"Um..?" Damien frowned and chuckled upon the sentence. It sounded off weird.

"OH.." Aziraphale covered his mouth when he realized what it must sound like, "..to your coffee, do you want some sugar to your coffee?"

Aziraphale pointed to the sugar cubes on the table, hands shaky and face red like a tomato.

Damien broke down in laughter so loud and pure Aziraphale couldn't help but join in.

And so they stood there, laughing like fools while the coffee on the table waited to drink.

The storm outside was increasing its intensity, yet neither of the men in the house by the fjords paid attention to it.

They were deep in the debate about which book of the 1700' is better and why.  
Hours passed, the storm slowly faded away and yet, Damien still stayed, talking to Aziraphale the way no one else was capable of.

No one can be really sure how long after that Damien stayed at Aziraphale's place, but when he was leaving the house the moon was almost at the end of its way.

"It seems he indeed succeeded," the tall figure from earlier claimed, a somewhat of a smile on its face.

"Yep, the first phase is finished," Nodded the other one.

"This is gonna be so fun!" Burst the first one with laughter so evil, one would hardly believe it's from a good person.

The shorter one followed along on the laughter to be quickly enough interrupted by yet another wave of rain.  
The storm came back.

"Let's get out of here, I hate rain," the taller shivered.

Both of them vanished again, leaving this piece of the world to people hidden from the storm. At least for a bit. Until things are finished.


	6. The prophecy

It's been a couple of months and the Lambertia on Crowley's windowsill was the most beautiful flower in London.

Its leaves were bright green and it even had it's the first bud, promising aggressive red petals once it blooms.

Crowley took his water sprinkler bottle and carefully sprinkled the flower, inspecting it closely.

"How are you today? Thirsty, are we?" He talked to it in a humming manner as he sprinkled it some more.

There isn't much information on how did he treat this particular plant, but one thing was certain; this plant has never trembled with fear not even once in it's so far so short life.  
For one reason or another, this plant has an almost therapeutic effect on Crowley. Taking care of it took up so much of his time he hardly ever thought about Aziraphale...

..well that wasn't exactly true, the angel was on his mind quite often, but it was manageable.

The night Crowley received the letter was also the night he decided to respect the angel's wish and give him some space. After all - it wasn't like they were doing the whole 14the century again, right?

And so the moons had passed and he pretty much got used to being alone all the time, he even almost convinced himself he doesn't need anybody else anyway. Life was manageable.

The phone on the table started ringing, Crowley just growled, not really in the mood to pick it up.

"..hey Crowley? Are you there? It's me, Anathema, we need to talk."

Crowley raised his eyebrows, this was unexpected. However didn't attempt to reach for the phone, either it's not that important or she'll spill it in seconds.

"It's about prophecy."

Upon hearing this, he rolled his eyes in disgust, after all that happened last time he really didn't found any joy nor interest in anything that has a thing to do with prophecy.

"Crowley! I think it's about you and.. And Aziraphale." Her voice sounded anxious, that wasn't a good sign.

The moment he heard the angel's name he grabbed the phone quicker than any human would be able to.

"What about Aziraphale?" He asked after picking it up. A voice maybe too loud.

"Oh, you are there."

"Of course I'm here, so?" Crowley snapped, impatiently drumming his fingers on the table.

"Listen, we will come to you, we need to talk," Anathema informed him, Crowley could hear two voices in the background, they were discussing quite loudly.

"Okay," Crowley gave her address of the Dinner's where he once took Aziraphale and hung up.

For some reason, his hand was shaking and not even the Lambertia by his window couldn't help him shake away the anxious feeling that something's hella wrong.

When Crowley walked into the Dinner's, Anathema and Newt were already sitting in one of the red boots, he sighed and joined them.

"Hi!" Newt smiled at him and offered him a hand to quickly yank it back after receiving two dead stares at once.

"What happened?" Crowley said, focusing purely on Anathema. She had her hair in a messy bun, few hair locks had set free and were now framing her face. She looked tired as if she didn't sleep for days.

Before Anathema could answer her sight focused on something behind Crowley, immediately her eyes went dark.

" _She_ happened," Anathema said, nodding into the direction her sight went before. The way she said it gave away an impression as if she was talking about an annoying bug.

Crowley turned around, confusion all over him. The girl he spotted was the most bratty looking thing he had ever seen (and he had seen some messed up things before ).  
She was your typical Instagram influencer, grey hair, the most stylish clothes, and phone glued to her hand she walked towards their booth, chewing gum so loudly Crowley was sure he heard it way before he saw her.

"What?"

Crowley turned back to them, mouth slightly open. This was too much to understand.

"That's Una. Uno, that's Crowley," Anathema introduced them for the girl to wave at Crowley with a smile before she scooped next to him to the booth.

Crowley could only stare with mouth dropped as this.. child ( she couldn't be older than 18) sat down and giggled to her phone with the authority of someone who experienced somewhat of fame.

"What?!" Crowley repeated himself, angrier and more confused this time.

"She is the living form of the book of prophecies," Anathema explained, visibly uncomfortable with what she had to say.

"She is a what?" At this point, Crowley almost screamed.

"I know, I know," Anathema adjusted her glasses, "it is unbelievable, but it's true, we ran some tests and she most definitely is the new prophet."

"This girl?" Crowley pointed at the creature next to him, currently doing something called ,boomerang'.

"Neet, right?" Newt smiled, making another spoon of his ice cream disappear into his mouth. Another two dead stares made him shut up right away.

"And what did she say about the angel and me?"

"Well...," Anathema looked down on the table, "Uno, could you tell us the prophecy number 301, please?" She asked the girl.

Una locked the phone and smiled widely; "Sure!"  
After that, she froze completely and her eyes rolled into her head.

"When the great war is won and the planet is in peace again, the guard of light and the snake will have a hard path to take. To save what matters the most, at any given cost, fer the world is in danger when the light dies."


	7. Meet Una

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi y'all I feel like I won't do summaries and notes amin every chapter. After all, if this was a book you'd have notes on the start and then just chapters not being interrupted by the authors babbling. 
> 
> Hope you don't mind, and if you do let me know in the comments down below. Speaking of comments feel free to let me know your opinion so far, would be highly appreciated ! 
> 
> Anyway I'll just shut up now and let you read in peace. 
> 
> Enjoy! :)

The silence that came after Una finished her prophecy could perfectly be described as dead.

It seemed as if the whole world stopped, not only the conversation in the red booth. For a split of a second everything kind of froze.

And then, as if by a charm, everything went on again on its usual path.

Except for Crowley. Well, Crowley went crazy. Which, frankly, wasn't too far from his 'path' as far as we can tell.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He snapped, his English accent shining with each word.

"We don't know yet," Anathema answered, shooting a quick glance at Newt, who tried so hard not to say a word.

"Well, _you_ should know what that means, am I right?" Crowley turned to Una, who was yet again back on her phone.

Crowley rolled his eyes and snapped fingers. The phone which was only a seconds ago in Una's hand was now nowhere to be found.

"Where's my phone?" She panicked, looking around furiously.

Crowley, at the other hand, didn't give a shit about her phone as he leaned closer, resting one of his hands behind Una and the other on the table in front of her.  
He moved down his glasses just enough for her to see his eyes, it usually worked.

"What does that mean? The prophecy," he said dangerously slow, giving emphasis on each word.

"I don't know, Anathema said it's normal, I'm just a messenger or sum," Una rolled her eyes.

Crowley did a series of strange sounds vocalizing his frustration, anger, and shock over how are teenagers these days, while turning back to Anathema.

"She doesn't know, really. And we are still not sure what should that mean, but we should find Aziraphale. As soon as possible."

"Where did you even find her?" Crowley breathed out, trying his best to stay calm. This was too much.

"Well.." Newt frowned, glancing at Anathema, who just sighed and moved the glasses back to the bridge of her nose.

_Two days ago_

Anathema was just in the kitchen cooking lunch for her and Newt when she got the feeling that something's really really wrong.

Out of habit, she sprinted towards their bedroom to look at prophecies before she realized that there are no more prophecies and will never be again.

A wave of loss run over her as she slowly returned to the kitchen. Not that she wasn't glad she could live her life freely without having to follow prophecies around the world. It was just that without it her life kinda lost its purpose.  
Purpose it had for her whole life so far.

She shot a quick glance at the clock on the wall - Newt should be home any minute now.

That's when she noticed her. Young girl in huge Prada boots standing at their driveway staring at the house as if she was hypnotized.

She didn't seem to belong in Tadfield at all. Something about her made Anathema actually go outside and try and find out what is this about.

"Hi, can I help you?" She smiled politely, hugging herself as she walked closer.

The girl didn't respond, in fact, she didn't even blink. She just kept staring at the house.

"Hey, do you hear me?" Anathema grabbed her arm. At that moment two things happened - some undefined force literally threw her away, while the girl's eyes rolled completely to the back of her head.

"Listen closely, which, the guardian of the fate, before the moon reaches it's fullest you will go and warn the snake and the guardian of the light fer the storm is on the sight," the girl said in a voice much deeper and otherworldly than it should be.

Anathema stared in shock as the girl got back to normal and looked around in confusion.

"Are you okay? Did it happen again? What did I say?" She hurried to Anathema, spilling out all these questions.

"What the bloody hell was that?!" They both heard a man's voice. Panicked voice. It was Newt. Coming from work.

"Well," Anathema sighed and glanced at the girl with grey hair, who was still offering a hand to help her stand up.

"I'm Una," she smiled.

  
The house of the witch and former witch-hunter was filled with the muffled sound of arguing of two people who didn't want to be heard.

Young Una sat in their living room, going through her phone. She didn't really understand any of what was happening and frankly, she didn't care that much to actually be a part of the conversation at the kitchen.  
Not that she should be a part of it.

You know, if you ever stumble upon a couple in the middle of a fight, whatever you do, we strongly advice to do not engage. Just walk away, as quietly as you can, tip-top to the closest exit and then run, run for your life.

Or at least backup, do not attempt to sort it out, do not try logic on them and for everyone's sake - do not take sides.  
Because when it comes to couples and fighting it's an area of no mercy.

And this couple wasn't any different from every other couple in the world and so naturally it went like any other fight in the history of couple fights.

"Even if she's really a prophet-"

"She is!"

"-why would you sacrifice your life to chase yet another prophecy to almost dying while at it?"

Newt wasn't very happy with this new prophet thingy, especially because their life was just starting to get back to normal. And Newt liked normal. Normal meant safe.

"Because we have to. We have to do this, it's our fate!"

"Is it? Even if we go to London and find Crowley and Aziraphale, what do we tell them, babe? We need to save the world again here's a girl that says prophecy that we aren't sure about what it means?"

"Yes, we'll do exactly that," Anathema nodded her head and Newt knew there wasn't a thing in the world nor Universe that would stop her from doing so.

Well, if you can't beat them, join them...

And so they all packed up and went on a long and quite awkward journey to London.

Things were slowly but surely moving. 


	8. The picnic

The weather in this piece of the world was quite a nice considering the heavy rains before, the furious wind faded into the cool breeze, and the clouds above the village few miles to the East dispersed to let some much-needed sun rays into there.

This all together with Azriaphale’s unusually great mood led to a hiking trip with his new friend Damien.

„Look down there, amazing, isn’t it?“ Damien called after Aziraphale who currently struggled to keep his balance after climbing, what in his opinion, was a literal mountain.

He didn’t really care for some view down there, he cared for deep breaths. He never was an athletic type and didn’t see a reason why to start after 6 000 years, but something about Damien made him climb some more.

„Yes, yes..indeed,“ He mumbled, out of breath, placing a hand over his racing heart.

„Let’s go, we’ll have a picnic at the top!“ Damien laughed, speeding up so much, Aziraphale quickly lost sight of him.

„Picnic at the top… Dear God,“ he breathed out but kept walking upwards. After all, there’s gonna be food up there.

„It wasn’t that bad, was it?“ Damien asked, taking a sip of his orange juice.

„No, it was quite..refreshing,“ Aziraphale smiled, not really sure if he means it. He was so glad to be finally sitting and eating instead of running climbing mountains like a psycho.

„You know, after all this time spent with you, there’s something on my mind,“ Damien spoke up suddenly, placing down the glass of juice, „..I’ve been meaning to tell you this for such a long time.“

Aziraphale froze, he had a weird gut feeling that this is going to be something big and certainly unexpected. He wasn’t really sure he wanted to hear what has Damien to say, but he was glued to a spot, unable to move.

„Aziraphale!“ A voice yelling from the distance interrupted the moment, it repeated itself with increasing intensity a few times.

Aziraphale knew this raspy voice, he recognized this rude tone and the over the top accent. He’d recognize this voice anywhere.

„Aziraphale, where the hell are ya, ya idiot?!“ Sounded from the road they took to get here. It echoed around them like a wind itself.

„Crowley!“ Aziraphale exclaimed, a wide smile forming on his lips as he shot up to look around. And sure enough, few feets down, there he was - in his iconic black suit and dark sunglasses he was running up to them followed by three figures in the distance.

His running style was really ridiculous, to say the least, he walked with movements of someone who was sexy and knew it damn well, but him running? Well, how should we word it without being offensive? Crowley running.. Have you ever seen a cat that has duct tape stuck to its paws? That’s quite accurate definition of Crowley’s running style.

Lucikly for him, Aziraphale didn’t question it a bit, smiling like sunshine over the redhead fool, until he realized what’s the situation. But by the time he did, Crowley was already at the top.

„What are you doing here?“ Aziraphale frowned, voice maybe too harsh, but somehow he couldn’t také his eyes of Crowley nor he could shake off the warm feeling in his stomach.

„I.. We... Ugh,…ahaha, gimmie a minute,“ Crowley got out of himself, as he bowed down to catch his breath, holding up his finger to signalize ‚just a minute‘.

Aziraphale shot a quick look at Damien who watched the whole scene with a shocked expression, there was some angriness too, but no one had time to really acknowledge it.

„I’m here to save your ass-„

At that moment Crowley noticed Damien sitting by the picnic, Crowley's face froze into a mask of stone. „Who’s that?“ he asked, nodding his head towards Damien.

„Oh,“ Aziraphale ‚woke up‘ and turned to Damien, a slightly nervous smile playing on his lips, „this is Damien.“

Damien stood up to shake hands with Crowley, who just kept watching him with the face of a snake watching a little white mouse in his territory. The tension was almost physical.

„Aziraphale!“ A woman’s voice interrupted the moment and when Aziraphale turned, he saw Anathema running towards him, holding a bit up her long skirt.

She hugged him tight before he could even react. Both of them burst into happy laughter, while Crowley was still watching Damien, who did all in his power to ignore that.

„What are you doing here?“ Aziraphale chirped, letting her go just on the arm length. His sight caught two more figures behind her, slowly walking to them. It was Newt and some girl he hasn’t seen ever before.

„We have a problem,“ Anathema looked worried, deeply worried. The awful gut feeling stroke at Aziraphale again.

„Hi, Newt!“ He greeted the young man when they finally joined the group on the top of the supposed ‚mountain‘.

Newt just smiled awkwardly, pushing his hands deep into his pockets.

„Having a lovely time, are ya..?“ Crowley mumbled, turning to Aziraphale, his mouth slightly open.

Aziraphale avoided eye contact and rolled his eyes, „we are having a picnic if you must know.“

„That’s not important now,“ Anathema stepped in, „we need to talk, it’s important.“

„Talk then.“

Crowley scoffed but remained silent after Aziraphale shot a glance at him, which was unusual. It had to be something then.

„In private,“ Anathema answered, catching Damien’s persistent sight. The guy gave her creeps.

„Fine, let’s go to my place, then,“ Aziraphale sighed, rubbing his hands as he turned to Damien, „I am afraid this has to wait, will you find way back alone?“ He asked rather politely.

„Of course, Azira,“ Damien smiled as he started packing up the leftovers of the picnic.

„Azira,“ Crowley imitated the young guy in rather taunting way when he passed by Aziraphale. There was something clearly bothering him, but there was no time to discuss it further. Aziraphale made a mental note to himself to ask about it later, for now, he just decided to enjoy the warmth snakes usually bring within itself.*

And so the whole group together with the greyhaired girl headed towards Aziraphale’s place, whenever that is, while Damien stayed on the top watching the group with a rather dead face expression.

Lucikly for him, people, demons nor angels, very rarely look back, so when he vanished into the thin air he had no witnesses except for two crows sitting on the tree nearby. But crows have seen so much ever since they were brought to this world to be really concerned with something like this.

(* metaphorically - a.k.a snakes always find the warmest spots to warm themselves up)


	9. I don't trust him

The house of Aziraphale’s temporary shelter was buzzing with a conversation that could be easily described as arguing - well, it wouldn’t be too far away from the truth, except it wasn’t a fight, it was too many people concerned with the world and wellbeing of each other in one place.

„That isn’t possible, is it?“ Aziraphale repeated himself for the 6th time during this conversation in which the rest of the group gathered at his house tried to explain what exactly is going on. Even after they made Una perform her prophecy he still was skeptical - better he simply refused that there should be yet another war when they barely stopped one month ago.

„It is possible and it’s happening and it obviously has something to do with us!“ Crowley snapped, standing up from his comfortable spot on the red couch.

„Crowley’s right, things are moving,“ Anathema nodded, looking down at all the two prophecies Una stated so far.  
The one about Anathema finding Crowley and Aziraphale was pretty clear. However the second one made her confused, she still couldn’t translate it quite accurately.

„How do you know it’s real anyway? I mean look at this poor child,“ Aziraphale giggled nervously and pointed at Una, who sat there, sipping on a lovely cup of tea she got.

„I am not a child anymore,“ she mumbled in between two sips. No one paid close attention to it, frankly.

„You felt is as well as I did, hell you can even feel it now!“ Crowley who was now almost at angel’s face hissed in frustration.

Aziraphale looked away, he knew damn well he felt it before, the gut-wrenching feeling that something’s really bad. It hadn’t really left ever since it appeared a few months ago.

„Okay, what does the prophecy mean?“

„We aren’t sure about that yet,“ Anathema shrugged her shoulders and looked back at her notebook, „it’s said here that we must protect the light from dying and that you,“ she looked up at the angel, „are the guardian of the light.“

„What light?!“ Crowley sat back down on the couch, bouncing his leg, he felt trapped and helpless and it was showing on each of his movements.

For a moment everyone went silent, they’ve sunk into their own minds to try and resolve what shall that mean, neither of them not even a bit closer to the actual meaning.

That’s the thing with prophecies - they are never clear, it’s not like you go to buy a Kinder Surprise and it comes with super obvious instructions as to what to do with the toy inside. It’s more like to go buy a chair at Ikea and it came in literal pieces with 6 pages long instruction sheet that has been translated from Swedish to English by a Chinese farmer who had never heard about chairs in his whole life.

„Couldn’t it be the flaming sword?“ Newt spoke up out of a sudden, voice low and scared of the reactions that might come if the idea is total garbage.

But that didn’t happen, in fact, everyone turned to him and then there was some serious exchanging of looks, as they were slowly coming to the realization it indeed might be the sword.

„Newt, you fool, I love you so much!“ Anathema jumped at Newt, kissing him right there and then in front of everybody. Crowley and Aziraphale just laughed - both their own way, Crowley loudly, while the angel was just sort of giggling.

„Ew, get a room!“ Una squeaked, moving away from the couple.

"So, we just need to find the flaming sword, whatever that is and protect it? From whom?" Una asked surprisingly on-point question after they all calmed down. 

"Basically, and we don't know that. Nor where to look for it," Newt smiled his goofy way as he sits down on the couch next to Una. 

"The mailman!" Crowley shouted out of a sudden and snapped his fingers in the pure realization. 

"Oh Lord, yes that's it! We need to find him," Aziraphale tagged along on the excited yelling. 

"Mailman?" Anathema raised her eyebrows in confusion. 

"He was the one who delivered all four items to all four horsemen of the Apocalypse," Crowley explained shortly, not taking his eyes off Aziraphale.

"But how do we find him?" Newt frowned. 

It almost seemed like they are about to get on again with the whole wondering session if it wasn't for Una. 

"Just order something from your homeland to here, if it's an international company they'll deliver it," Una shrugged her shoulders as if this was the most obvious thing.

All of the others just stared at her in shock, she maybe could be useful after all. 

"Okay, I'll look to it, do you remember which company it was?" Una sighed with a temper of someone who deals with old people and electronics for way too long.

Aziraphale who got out of that shock first quickly informed her about the address and brief profile of the mailman.

"I will need my phone," Una held up her hand, piercing Crowley with her triumphal smile. 

Crowley just sighed and snapped his fingers, within seconds smartphone appeared in Una's hand. She wheezed in excitement as if he gave her a new car and immediately was lost in the tech world of hers.

Hopefully, this will be useful too.

Later that day, when Newt and Anathema had left, taking poor Una with themselves, Crowley and Aziraphale sat down on the front porch. They had a lot to talk about after all. Surprisingly enough the topic of the possible new apocalypse was pushed back for something much more simple and kinda trivial.

„So..,“ Crowley sighed, as he stretched his legs, „Damien, huh?“

„What about him?“ Aziraphale decided to play it safe. It wasn’t like they were more than friends or anything.

„Nothing, nothing... I just think it’s really funny to see you engage with people like this.“

„Like what?“ Aziraphale shoots a quick glance at his half laying friend, the demon was looking straight into the fields in front of them.

"Like... Him," Crowley growled in annoyance.

"Oh, that explains it a lot... Actually nothing at all."

„I don’t trust him,“ Crowley claimed out of a sudden, leering to the side where angel sat beside him.

„Well, Crowley,“ The angel straightened up, fixing his tartan bow, he frankly was a bit offended, „you don’t trust anybody so there’s-„

„I trust you,“ Crowley muttered, maintaining close eye contact with the darkness around them.

The angel gasped and a touched smile spread on his lips, he turned to the demon with sight, we can not describe any other way than, hearty eyes.

„Don’t look at me like that angel.“

Crowley stood up, heading back to the house, „let’s go,“ he sighed before getting inside the house.

Aziraphale, on the other hand, remained sitting at the bench for a little longer, replaying those words in his head while smiling like a fool.

He indeed missed this banter.

  
Not too far away from the spot where the picnic took place earlier, were two figures, standing hidden in the shadows of a nearby tree. They’ve been standing there for a while, in silence, only the two of them could share. It was full of mutual hatred yet somewhat of agreement - at least for now.

„So the prophet has been found, that isn’t convenient,“ the taller figure exclaimed, eyes glued on the glowing house down the road.

„No, not at all.., Crowley's the last thing we needed here," was the response of the other one.

"Crowley," the taller repeated the name as if it was an ugly insect, "I certainly do hope your guy is as good as you claim him to be."

"He'll handle it, he had never failed us before,“ the shorter of them too spoke in a low tone of someone who’s been drinking too much of coffee lately.

„Well, he has to, because if not..“

„I know! He will do the job done!“

After a while of silence the shorter of them spoke up again; „still it wouldn’t do any harm if the prophet just..vanished.“

Looks were exchanged and two sets of evil laughter could be heard echoing through the fields as them two figures vanished just like Damien before.


	10. Sound that can not be drown

It was an exceptionally beautiful morning, the sun was only now slowly making it’s way up, creating beautiful scenery all around. The birds sang their first notes of the day and the mist above green fields all around promised sunny warm day. It was one of these days people usually spend on the beach or hiking in the mountains.

Luckily Crowley didn’t see a point in any of that and when he sat down in the chair by the window he pretty much didn’t look outside at all.

Frankly, he had other things in mind. He just spoke to Anathema on phone and for a brief moment everything seemed to go smoothly - The mailman is supposed to arrive tomorrow, hopefully, it will be worth the wait. And she also told him that they’ll stay at the village today because Una’s feeling sick. Well, that news wasn’t bad at all in Crowley’s opinion.

Now he just had to wait till Aziraphale wakes up, so he can inform him of the current state of things.

As nonhuman creatures, they didn’t really need sleep, neither of them. However while Crowley preferred to spend the time doing something meaningful such as little acts of evil, Aziraphale on the other side liked the idea of sleep and so he happily chimed in with people on this habit.

The demon looked out the window in just the right moment to spot a figure in a black suit walking towards the house, coming from the village a few miles to the East. He frowned in confusion, he couldn’t think of a person that would visit Aziraphale and wear a black suit - except for him, but he doesn’t wear a suit.

As the figure got closer Crowley’s eyes went wide, the sudden realization hit him like a truck to be quickly changed in anger, pure starving anger.

And so when the figure knocked on the door, the demon swung them open, leaning one of his hands against the door frame and the other one on the door to physically restrain the visitor from entering the house.

„Good morning Crowley,“ Damien smiled, checking the demon out, „is Aziraphale home?“

Crowley, on the other hand, didn’t say a word, just kept staring at him with the look you’d give to random creep at the street. Disgust mixed with anger and contempt made the demon’s face really scary to look at - not for Damien though.

„What? You don’t talk to me now?“

„I’ve never even started,“

There was something off about him and there was no way he’d let him into the house to sleeping Aziraphale.

Damien burst with laughter.

„You are really something, Crowley,“ he then got out of himself wiping away fake tears.

„What do you want?“

Damien’s laughter disappeared as quickly as it appeared before leaving behind just a slight smile that never really reached his eyes. „I want to talk to Aziraphale,“ he repeated himself.

Crowley frowned, what a persistent little bastard, but before he could answer they both heard some noise coming from the further part of the house to soon enough spot the angel walking to the living room, fully dressed in his usual clothing.

„Damien!“ Aziraphale’s voice echoed through the house as he hurried to the door, a smile plastered on his lips.

„Azira, how are you today?“

„Good, I had a lovely dream, and you, my dear?“

„Oh, what did you dream about? I’m happy as a puppy!“

Both of them burst with laughter, while Crowley just stood there, jaw dropped, this was a whole new side of the angel and frankly - it was weird.

Aziraphale caught the demon’s sight and stopped laughing right away. He looked down and blushed a little as he looked back up to Crowley, who made a grimace, taunting the two of them.

„Er… What are you even doing here?“ Aziraphale turned back to Damien, trying his best to ignore the death stare from his side.

„I was wondering if you’d go on a little trip with me.“

„Yes!“ „No!“

The demon and an angel yelled at the same time, exchanging angry looks right after. Damien just laughed, shoving his hands into pockets of his pants.

„Will you give us a minute?“ Aziraphale smiled politely and before Damien could answer the door shut in front of his face.

„Do you care to explain what was this about?“ Aziraphale asked with a tone of someone who had just been embarrassed in front of an important person.

„There is no way you’ll go anywhere with him.“

„Excuse me?“

„I don’t trust him and hell I am rarely wrong in this!“

„That’s enough, you are being too dramatic now.“

„Dramatic?! Dra-ma-tic? Have you even looked at him? Walking around with his perfect smile and asking you out-„

„Crowley…,“ Aziraphale’s eyes sparkled with sudden realization, „..are you jealous?“ he giggled like a teenage girl.

„I.. Y-... Er... Me? No! Why? Of course not! Why would I?“ Crowley spilled out, waving his hands around dramatically.

However, Aziraphale was obviously already convinced and there was nothing that could take this moment away.

„You are jealous! Awww that’s sweet,“ he squeaked, touched smile spreading on his lips.

„Shut it! I am not jealous!“ Crowley snapped angrily getting steps closer to the angel, now they stood face to face, looking eye to eye.

Right at that moment, the quick knock interrupted the moment and the door swung open - with Damien behind it.

„Oh,“ he gasped when he spotted the two of them standing millimeters from one another, „did I just interrupted something?“

Aziraphale glanced at him and smiled widely, „no, of course not, let’s go.“

Crowley still didn’t take off his eyes from the angel, head tilt a little back, he didn’t want him to leave with this guy.

„Have a nice day, Crowley,“ Aziraphale muttered softly taking the famous double look at the demon before he left.

Crowley remained standing there like a fool, and if we said there hardly was anyone as angry as him in the whole world, we wouldn’t be wrong. And since it was that demon we talk about there was quite an obvious solution to those emotions - either he could go and destroy some plants, which he didn’t notice anywhere in this house, or he could get drunk.  
The answer was easy; alcohol, quite extraordinary amounts of alcohol.

  
Later that day, to be more correct – 6 steady hours later Crowley only barely resembled the demonic creature he is supposed to be.

He was lying face down on the couch, mumbling incoherent words into the pillow, he obviously tried to sing along with The Velvet Underground, an LP he, to his own shock found in Aziraphale's music library.

The volume was turned all the way to the right as if its purpose was to drown all the other sounds of the world. Which worked quite efficiently. However, when it came to the noise going on inside of Crowley's mind there wasn't music loud enough to drown it.

And so he drank and drank and drank and somewhere in the middle of it all he came to the conclusion that everything's stupid and everyone sucks and there's no need for him to get involved.

Besides, Aziraphale preferred this Damien over his company so there wasn't really point in trying any further.


	11. Public reading

The old library in the center of the village a few miles to the East was unusually loud

for a place like this, which was mainly thanks to the group of little kids that came here with their moms for the reading of new kid’s book.

All the children were gathered around the reader, who read the book out loud as if it was theatrical performance. He was changing voices and tones depending on each character, sometimes his voice went from low to high or husky in seconds, he did funny faces and gesticulated with his hand to ‚draw‘ into the air for the kids sitting around him in a half-circle, while the parents stood at the back.

Usually, they’d chat a little - moms about where to buy the cheapest school supplies and how horribly is Becky’s haircut ( „she looks like a cow, now!“), while dads, the whole three of them, would discuss one particular car of one of them or football stuff.

However, for some reason, today no one talked, besides reactions from those kids, everyone was listening to this young gentleman reading the book for a whole one hour now.

Aziraphale stood in the middle of the crowd, smiling like a proud dad, he couldn’t believe ‚the supposed trip‘ would be something as awesome as public reading in the library with Damien being the reader.

What an interesting person, this Damien, tall skinny guy in a black suit with somehow sparkling green eyes. Aziraphale didn’t think twice about his looks though, he was much more fascinated with the way Damien was with others, kids especially. He always seemed so nice and friendly - which was exactly the kind of behavior someone else lacked.

Before he knew it, the reading was over and he, to his own surprise, realized that he didn’t remember the hour passing. When he took a look at his pocket watch he gasped in shock, it’s been whole six hours since they left and he didn’t remember the time passing. Not even a minute. It felt as if they just left.

But he knew for fact that they had lunch and then went to the farmer’s market and the also stopped at the local park (well it was technically just a bench with a statue next to it) and he definitely remembered they went in here, yet he couldn’t remember what exactly did they do during any of these activities.

„One more chapter, please!“ A little girl in the front row begged as she crawled on Damien’s lap. He laughed and found Aziraphale’s eyes, who just kind of smiled and looked back at his watch. This was weird. Really weird.

Damien got back to the reading ( „one more can’t hurt“), while Aziraphale still stared at his watch, trying to figure out what exactly is going on.

„Azira? Are you here with us?“ Damien raised his voice in a soft tone and when Aziraphale looked up he noticed everyone was staring at him, so he just smiled politely and nodded his head as he put the watch back to his pocket.

„What is it?“ Damien asked, handing the angel his coat after the reading was finally over.

„Um..? ..Oh, nothing, really.“ Aziraphale tried his best to seem calm and relaxed, even though his brain was on full speed - this wasn’t normal.

„Come on, I know you, I can see something’s wrong,“ Damien muttered, taking Aziraphale’s hands into his.

The angel looked down on their hands, confused more than before. For some reason, he felt warmth flowing from Damien’s hands into his. He looked up to meet the most greenish eyes he had ever seen and suddenly all his worries were gone.

There they were, standing in the library, holding hands, as all the other visitors were heading out, happily chirping about how good this public reading was.

The whole world went silent and the longer they looked at each other the weaker Aziraphale felt as if his last lines of defense just fell down.

„What is it?“

The question fell from Damien’s lips so quietly and soothingly, there was no way the angel wouldn’t answer.

Aziraphale opened his mouth to tell him about the weird thing with the time and everything, he almost said it when it happened.

Sharp pain in his chest nearly kicked him down, if it wouldn’t be for Damien catching him around his waist. The angel felt like he’s about to vomit, something back is happening. He could sense it. Crowley.

Such a big snippet of Crowley’s emotions transferred to the poor angel, who even tho he tried really hard, couldn’t manage such a pain and frustration at once.

„Azira, are you okay??“ Damien’s worried voice only barely reached his ears, he felt dizzy, frustrated and angry.

„Crowley..“ he mumbled, holding onto Damien’s coat as if it could somehow ease the pain. Well, at least it helped him with stability.

„What?“

„We... I need to go.. I.. I’m so sorry...Crowley..“ Aziraphale got out of himself, hardly focused on what was he saying, the feeling of Crowley being in danger made him physically sick.

„What? But we’ve got the dinner planned,“ Damien frowned, for a brief moment his eyes seemed gloomy and red, but Aziraphale didn’t pay close attention to it as he was already leaving.

„Oh yes... I’m sorry I really need to go, maybe some other time..?“ And with those words he was gone, looking frantically around himself as he almost ran through the street to get home.

Damien was watching the angel until he lost sight of him, deep concern in his face.

„Are you sure you’ll handle it?“ a rough voice interrupted his track of thoughts.

He didn’t even flinch, because he expected the visit, sooner or later. He knew they’ve been watching him ever since they gave him the order. It was just about time.

„Of course,“ he nodded, feeling a short figure standing next to him, he didn’t even have to look to know who’s next to him, the place which this creature crawled out was almost physically visible within the person.

„He is strong.. you may have to reconsider your approach.“

„I will handle it, no need to change my methods.“

„Fine... Just in case you’d fail,“ the figure got uncomfortably close to his ear, „there is one special place for fuckers like you, you know that right?“

The whisper lingered in his head long after the figure vanished to the air, leaving him in the middle of the library with nothing but the feeling of pure disgust.

The young gentleman growled and put on his coat, after that he also left the library heading who knows where.


	12. Bebop

The birds were long asleep whenever they go to sleep before yet another day of working for the bourgeoisie when the otherwise quiet evening was interrupted by a shriek of pain. Who would expect the sun to hide behind thick clouds signalizing yet another thunderstorm setting everything into somewhat darkness?

Aziraphale certainly didn't (even tho he found it extremely weird) and so it just happened that he had tripped over yet another pothole. For obvious reasons, we can not quote the word that escaped his mouth as it’s not appropriate for an angel, but we can say that it was one of the softer ones, to say the least.

This was just one of many reasons he was in such distress - the other reason would be for example the fact that he can not perform miracles, he tried to miracle himself to Crowley immediately after he left the village, but for one reason or another nothing happened. There honestly were billions of reasons why he muttered a nasty word here and there during his journey but none of them as persistent as the thought of Crowley being hurt without him around.

Finally, after almost an hour of painful walking, he spotted the victorian house so outstanding in the fields. Without thinking twice about it he speeded up. Halfway through the supposed driveway, he realized that the bebop Crowley usually listens to was blasting out of his gramophone, echoing around the house.

„What the..?“ Aziraphale mumbled, speeding up a little more before he finally kicked the door open - well, not exactly ‚kicked‘ more of opened with resolutely. The scene that was hidden behind it will stay burnt into his memory for the end of times.

The whole house was a complete mess, it seemed as if someone tried to do a classic blanket fort using everything they found yet failing at it miserably, everything was misplaced and messy. And in the middle of it was Crowley, with his shirt unbuttoned halfway down, a glass of wine in one of his hands he swinging to the rhythm of the music. There was something fascinating about the way his hips swung and his legs danced. Aziraphale couldn’t help but just stare up until Crowley turned around in one particularly dramatic turn and spotted the angel.

„Aziraphale! Whaah ya doin herree?“ Crowley yelled, putting the glass of wine down as he hurried towards the angel on his unsteady feet.

„Good lord,“ Aziraphale sighed, checking the demon out, „I thought something happened to you!“

„Whaat? No, no, no..I-„ Crowley pointed to his chest, „am comp- cop..I’m fine.“

„Oh, are you? Because to me, it seems like you, my dear, are drunk.“

„Maybe.“

„Definitely drunk.“

„C’mon Aziraphale, here ya go,“ he tried to hand him a glass of wine he took who knows from where, but the angel put it down, looking at Crowley with deep concern.

Aziraphale sighed softly and sat down on the sofa, pushing away some pillows. It’s been almost a whole century without this scene and he couldn’t say he didn’t miss it from time to time.

„Angel,“ Crowley said with a surprisingly sober tone.

„Yes?“

„Dance with me.“

Aziraphale looked up, shock written all over his face. Crowley held up his hand, waiting for the angel to take it.

„To this? Absolutely not.“

Crowley made a sad face and with one snap of his fingers, the music suddenly changed to soft tones of Aziraphale’s favorite composer.

(A/N: From now on we will censor out all the drunk babbling of the demon to bring you the purest interpretation of events as they happened.)

„C’moooon angel, I know u can dance,“ Crowley took the angel’s hand and simply pulled him with all his strength what resulted in awkwardly close proximity of their bodies.

„I don’t really think-„

„Shhh, angel.“

Aziraphale felt a hand on his waist that pulled him closer to the demon, he could smell alcohol and cologne which made him a little bit dizzy. No, not the fact that he was

slow-dancing with Crowley, their bodies pressed against each other while the demon didn’t take his snake eyes off of his - no it was definitely the alcohol fumes.

They swung around slowly, Crowley being the lead in their little dance, while Aziraphale could only stare in shock.

There were no words needed between them at that moment. No need for gestures or mimics. Only their smiles and deep looks into one another’s eye.

„What are we doing?“ Aziraphale whispered after a while of this dance.

„Dancing,“ claimed the demon, softly caressing Aziraphale’s back.

„This is wrong.“

„How can something that feels so good be wrong?“

Something about the way Crowley said it made Aziraphale’s heart shiver - what if he was right? What if this wasn’t that bad? What if they could..?

„But-„

„Angel,“ Crowley murmured, closing his eyes for a brief moment, „we are just dancing, don’t think about it too much.“ A slight smile appeared on his lips.

Aziraphale didn’t answer, he just nodded his head and gave in. It was just a dance after all. It didn’t mean anything besides that he gets a chance to share such a beautiful moment with him.

Warmth flowed from the demon’s arm into his back and the sounds around them faded. All that was left was the music and their gentle swaying rocking him into a comfortable feeling of safety.

„What is it? Crowley suddenly spoke, breaking the silence. His voice only barely above whisper.

„Um..? Nothing, really,“ The angel smiled sadly, looking away from those magnetic eyes.

„Aziraphale…“

„Fine, I -„

Before he got a chance to finish one of the windows swung open followed by a loud crash of breaking glass.

„What the hell?“ Crowley frowned, the moment was gone, now they had broken window situation.

When Aziraphale joined Crowley in inspecting the damage he thought to himself that it was probably for the better. Not the right time. Maybe it’s indeed better this way.

A dark figure hidden behind a tree outside snickered the way only crazy people do as he put down the other rocks he had just in case the first thrown one would be enough.

His red eyes glowed into the night as he watched the two of them inspect the window.

„Well done, just like an amateur,“ A mocking voice interrupted his triumphal moment. A tall figure and a short one appeared by each side of him.

„Doesn’t matter how, at least it worked,“ Damien snapped, his eyes not leaving the house.

„But for how long?“ The shorter chuckled.

„For as long as needed, now if you’ll excuse me, I have places to be.“ With those words, he vanished leaving the two figures to their business. whatever it was.

The two of them vanished not long after him, this time without unnecessary chatter, things were slowly moving, yet no one was quite sure if it was for the better. 


	13. Hangover

Crowley woke up to quite a lovely morning if he ever cared about things such as lovely morning of course. He stayed in bed remembering what happened last night - he got drunk, he tried to do a blanket fort, he almost destroyed the whole house while at it… And he danced with an angel. 

He slowly closed his eyes, smile spreading across his lips as he replayed that memory over and over with every detail, deciding he will cease this memory forever. 

Hope this won't change things to the worse as every time before, he thought to himself. Because as amazing as Aziraphale was he had this stupid trait that anytime they got close he suddenly backed up, leaving Crowley hurt and confused. Which once resulted in 14th century situation.. But that's another story. 

Just the thought of this happening all over again set Crowley into almost bad mood as he swung up from the bed to lie back down immediately - hangover is a bitch. He forgot he got so drunk last night, naturally forgetting about the hangover as well. 

Crowley snapped his fingers but nothing happened. He still felt like shit, his stomach was weak and his head was about to explode, not to mention the taste in his mouth. 

"What the heaven?!" He mumbled groggily, sitting up az he tried to miracle the hangover away once again - no result. 

"Bless it!"

Only very slowly he got to the kitchen to find something to ease the pain - just he didn't know what to look for because as long as he's been on Earth he never even once had to deal with hangover. Never. 

"Good morning!" 

Crowley almost threw up from the shock, also due to unrelated reasons that has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with the fact his head was spinning like crazy. 

Upon turning he spotted Una sitting on the couch in living room, she naturally had her phone in her hand but without the make up she looked barely 15. 

"Ugh.. Shut up," Crowley growled, turning back to continue the hopeless search for some medicine. 

"Hangover is a bitch, right?" She laughed, but somehow quiet as if she knew about the fact his brain would probably explode if any loud noise sounded around him. 

Without waiting for a response she stood up and joined him in the kitchen, carrying her bag with herself to the table. 

"Where is everybody?" Crowley asked, squinting his eyes before he put on his iconic glasses which wasn't that much of help, certainly not as much as he hoped for. 

"Oh, they went to meet the mailman," Una answered, searching for something in her pink bag, it had synthetic fur on the smallest pocket and Crowley had to physically resist the urge to touch it. 

"What?! Why didn't they wake me up?!" 

This scream almost cost him his consciousness, Una had to grab him by the arm so he wouldn't tell down. 

"Advice? Don't be loud when you have hangover," she smiled, helping him sit down on a chair by the table, "also Aziraphale said you need to relax so they gave me the duty to look after you."

Crowley just rolled his eyes, which to his surprise hurt too, and snapped his fingers - yet once again nothing had happened. 

"Heavens, why can't I do any blessed miracle?!" He mumbled underneath his breath, laying his head down on the table - huh, this is kinda comfy. 

"Oh, that would be me.." 

"What?" 

"For some reason your powers are blocked when I'm near." 

Crowley stared at her in disbelief, this couldn't be happening! He should be there! 

A part of him, much bigger than he was willing to admit, was terrified to death because this could easily be a sign of backing up. It could easily be the start of new 14th century for all he knew! 

"So let me get this straight," he picked himself up just enough to look her in the eye, "I am stuck with a girl that blocks my powers which means I can't cure my hangover or miracle myself away while everyone else is at the meeting with the fuckin' mailman?" 

"Yup," Una nodded her head, not impressed nor interested in Crowley's speech as she walked to the sink and poured water into a tall glass, "here, take this," she handed him the glass and two white pills. 

"What is it?" 

"Aspirin, it will make you feel better." 

"I don't-" 

"Just take it." 

Una stood there, obviously waiting for him to swallow the pills, after he did so (even though he acted as if he had to fight lion barehanded) she smiled and walked back to the living room. 

"Go take a nap," she suggested as she was leaving the kitchen. 

Crowley was left sitting there, shocked that she obviously had none of this shit when it came to his intimidating tactics. 

And so he did as he was told - not that he'd ever admit it- and headed back to bed. 

"Crowley?" A soft whisper interrupted his uneasy sleep full of burnt angel's wings and flames. 

"Ugh..gm?" He mumbled, half asleep, upon opening one eye he learned it was Una, peeking into the bedroom with a tray in her hands that held two cups and porcelain kettle. 

A faint smell of English tea reached the bed as Crowley only slowly rolled on his back. 

"So? How do you feel?" She asked, putting the tray in the nightstand beside the bed.

"Better… The headache is gone," admitted the demon. 

"Great, tea?" 

Crowley's sight traveled from her to the kettle and back, her sight didn't allowed any objections whatsoever so he just sighed and rubbed his eyes, "yes, please." 

She sat down on the bed next to him, pouring two cups of tea that smelled surprisingly tasty and handed one of them to Crowley who somehow managed to sit up and lean his back against the wall. 

"What is it?" Una asked after she took a sip of her tea, purposely avoiding eye contact with him in case it might scare him away. 

"What is what?" Crowley mumbled, inspecting the tea as if it was a bomb. 

"What's bothering you so much that you actually gotta get drunk as fuck and then destroy the whole house?" 

This question surprised him more than he was willing to show. Never once in his long long life had anyone besides Aziraphale asked him that and so he naturally resulted to sarcasm as he usually do. 

"Oh sorry, I didn't know I have to have reason for that!" 

But it didn't work, Una turned to him with the sight that didn't allow this, it was pure and concerned and somehow powerful and Crowley simply didn't stand a chance. 

"Come on, you can tell me," she whispered, touching his shoulder ever so slightly. 

For one reason or another Crowley gave in and what happened after is hard to describe by words because we know you won't believe us if we tell you. 

However Crowley put down his cup and with the most dramatic sight fell right in Una's lap, allowing her to caress his hair like a baby. 

"It's him, isn't it?" She smiled with a sad smile of someone who experienced break up more fucked up than anyone would believe 

"Yes." 

"So? Tell me what's wrong." 

"Why? It won't change a shit." 

"Yes but it's still better than bottling it up and destroying everything around you." 

Crowley closed his eyes, this was too much for him. He would never believe that this would happen, that there would be a human being able to understand and explain out loud all these stupid feelings and thoughts inside his head. 

For one reason or another he felt so vulnerable and open with her and without even realising it he gave in - he started talking and by the time he finished the tea in that lovely kettle was long cold. 

"It wasn't that bad, was it?" She chuckled when he sit back up. 

"Shut up." 

What Crowley actually wanted to say was thank you, just he didn't know how. He'd like to believe she understood this too and her laughter gave away the hint that she maybe did.

At that moment Newt's head peeked into the room, his face worried as if the death appeared right in this house. 

"Guys, we've got a problem, Aziraphale's gone." 


	14. Incompetent idiots

The silence that came after Newt's announcement would be easily described as dead. Even the birds out went silent, the world stopped. At least Crowley's. He could feel the blood pulsing on his temples.

It took him a moment to process the new information. He just found him days ago - it isn't possible he's gone again! It can't be.

"Um.. Guys?" Newt called after them, shifting his weight from one leg to another. And that was it, the moment Crowley snapped.

"What do you mean he's gone?" He shouted, jumping out of the bed, pinning Newt to the wall in nanoseconds.

"I-I .. I don't know! One minute he was - he was just there and then he.." Newt got out of himself before Una stepped in and put a hand on Crowley's arm.

"Let him go."

Newt's wide eyes traveled from Crowley to her and then back, it was such an absurd situation he couldn't believe they really sent him to deal with it.

Him a guy who wasn't able to order at restaurant without stuttering like an idiot. Him a guy who can't even go to most social events because he's so anxious around people! Him a scared human to deal with demon with anger management issues. Seriously!?

To which we'd have to reply that they indeed had to. As 'they' stood for Anathema only at this point and while he was pinned to the wall like a chicken his girlfriend was frantically listing through what was left from prophecies, once again making a mind note to kill Newt laters for that.

Because as much as he loved him she could hardly deny the fact that a lot of things would be easier right now if she had the book of prophecies Agnes had written centuries ago.

For example she'd knew in advance about Una appearing on their driveway, she'd also knew that Aziraphale would go missing. Or maybe she wouldn't. If anything was known about Agnes it was definitely the fact that no one would ever describe her prophecies as the ones with clear message. So it is possible that she wouldn't be any wiser with them in her hand, but she would certainly feel calmer.

"Crowley, we have to go find Aziraphale, let's go," Una said in low voice, Crowley snapped a look at her hand on him and she hesitantly put it away. After that he finally let go of Newt who almost collapsed.

Crowley left the room, mumbling something about incompetent idiots, while Una shot a comforting glance at Newt. He kind of smiled and sighed, he fixed his jacket and then both of them followed the demon to the kitchen.

When they got there Crowley was already arguing with Anathema about how was it possible that they apparently lost Aziraphale.

"I told you he was there when I spoke to the mailman, who told us the sword was safely handed back to it's owner, and when I turned back to him, he was gone!"

"Gone? What do you mean gone?!" Crowley grimaced throwing his arms into the air.

"Couldn't it be that Damien?" Una frowned.

"No, he wasn't anywhere near when it happened," Newt sighed, rubbing his forehead.

"Oh how do you know when none of you paid enough attention to him to notice he bloody vanished!" Crowley taunted him, losing his shit.

"Hey, that's enough we didn't lose him on purpose!" Anathema stepped in, "also you can't just throw it at that guy just because you feel threatened!"

"Threatened ?! Do you think I feel threatened ?!"

Crowley got uncomfortably close to Anathema, which of course triggered Newt; "Crowley, no need to yell, right?"

"You shut up now !"

"Frankly, yes, yes I think you do. But that is not the point, we need to figure where the angel is," Anathema raised her voice a bit.

And that was it, that was the time that set the fight. As absurd as it was there they were a bunch of incompetent idiots arguin over things that doesn't matter instead of cooperating to get the angel back.

In the middle of this all a barely hearable >plop< filled the immediate space around all of them and before anyone knew there was a granny in their house. Smiling like a sunshine.

Newt, who stood closest to her jumped away with a yelp, while Una pulled out a gun and automatically pointed it at the granny.

"Where did you get that?!" Newt cried out with a voice so scared and high one could barely believe it belongs to a man.

However he quite accurately vocalised what went through everyone's head at that moment. If we'd be honest we'd say even Crowley was taken back by the idea of this child holding such a dangerous machine. Not that he'd say it out loud. Ever.

"I think there will be no need for that kind of thing, darling," the granny spoke, voice raspy but somehow warm at the same time.

"Put that down, Howdy," Crowley snapped, approaching the old woman, who just stood there smiling the way only grandmas do.

Una reculantly put the gun back to her bag but was informed by Anathema that they gonna talk about it later.

"Who are you?" Crowley frowned at the lady, noticing she has a very old book in her hand. Also that she was really small, even smaller than Una and that her face and hands resembled of walnut in color as well as structure.

"Oh, my name is Jorka, dear, but I'm afraid that we don't have enough time for formalities now, if we want to save the light," she smiled at him as if she was talking to her grandson and not to a full grown sassy demon.

"Egh.. Pf..ugh.. I don't frankly care about the light one bit! All I care about right now is Aziraphale!" Crowley got out of himself, but it was hard to let his emotions on loose when she was smiling like that. Like an idiot. But nice one.

"That's what I'm talking about, dear. He is the light" she nodded her head wisely.

  
The two figures watching the whole scene from near bushes got nervous. This wasn't something they'd predict. She was trouble.

"What now?" Asked the taller one, voice slightly concerned.

"Nothing, right now we can only hope he'll be done with it sooner than she tells them where to look for them."

"Inconvenient, isn't it?"

"You are inconvenient," the shorter one rolled eyes upon turning to walk away.

"You take that back!"

The taller one followed back to the bushes, however vanishing right after few steps, as well as the shorter one. And so their argument was transferred to another world or place they vanished to. 


	15. Damien is a what?!

"So when you," Newt pointed to Una, " said we have to save the light, it was Aziraphale who you were talking about?" 

"Oh, yes.. Because I totally know what I mean any time I say a prophecy," Una smiled sarcastically. Newt who realized what had he just said nodded his head firmly and decided he won't speak for a while. 

"But you are correct, darling," The granny smiled, sitting down on a nearby chair. 

"Okay, can you maybe explain it a bit or will it be magically transferred to our brains or what?" Crowley snapped, leaning against the table next to the grandma. 

"Of course, darling. The other day my great-granddaughter mentioned a red-eyed man with big fangs. Her mother, my granddaughter didn't believe her so she came to me, she is a real sweetheart-" 

"Could you please get to the point?" Crowley whined as politely as he was able to but swung with an impatience of little kid. 

"I will get there, don't worry. So as I said she came to me and I immediately recognized it as an incubus, I have a great experience with them." 

"How would you-" 

"The Northern witch.." Anathema whispered, eyes wide as she was obviously trying to calculate the possibilities. "You are Jorka Maria Sörgen, the Northern witch!" She pointed a finger at her. 

"Indeed, my child," Jorka chuckled as if she just said a good joke. Everyone else seemed confused. Except for Anathema, she looked almost as if met Agnes Nottor. It must've been something then. 

"The Northern witch is one of the oldest and most powerful witches in ages, she is a legend! The story about incubus and the prostitute circle is-" 

"I'm sorry darling, but we don't have time for this right now," Jorka held up her hand with a calming smile. 

"Yeah, frankly I don't care who you are, can we all focus on the main problem here??" Crowley was like a worm trapped in a glass, his body movement resembled of seizure.

"Incubus, you know who that is, right? You have met him before, given he's from the same place," Jorka spoke surprisingly seriously, looking Crowley directly to the eye. 

"Damien!" Crowley punched the table when the pure realization hit him. Everything that had happened went in front of his eyes - the feeling of jealousy and disgust when he first met him, the red eyes, the effect he had on Aziraphale.. Everything made sense. 

"Am I the only one confused?" Newt muttered, rubbing the back of his head as his sight swung to Una in hopes, who just shrugged her shoulders. 

"Incubus is a creature right from hell, it is a demon that takes the souls of people, mostly women, through their desire. He can take a look of what is your perfect and most desirable idea of a person and it works like a curse.. Within weeks the demon takes over the soul of this poor person," Jorka explained, listing through her book to find an accurate picture of the incubus. 

Newt's face lit up with realization, he smiled and said; "Oh that's why he looks so much like Cro-"

Una poked him to the ribs with his elbow and gave him a warning stare. Newt mouthed 'what' but dropped it. 

Crowley shut just a quick glance in their direction, not really catching up on what they were talking about as his only concern was the angel. Not only this demon can take his soul, but it also would mean that he committed such a sin if he gave in that even if they saved him the Heaven would kill him for good. Not that Crowley would just stand there and watch it or that he really believed they would show up. But after their last meeting when they made total fools out of them all it was weird they haven't done anything yet. 

"Well, and where do we find him?" He asked, losing all his patience. 

"Were need someone who's able to track magical energy that's hidden before us," Jorka looked back directly at Crowley. 

Who stood there for a second, swinging on his legs anxiously before he realized. 

Before anyone knew Crowley shout out of the house, kicking a chair over as he frantically sprinted out the door leaving a bunch of confused people behind as well a walnut grandma that just smiled as she does.

  


Crowley ran, he ran as if his whole life depended on it - which wouldn't be a complete lie more like a misuse of words. During this run thoughts were running through his mind at almost the same speed as hIm. Maybe even quicker.

As a demon he has his powers, he can track others on this mental map of the world. However, when this person is hidden he can do whatever he wants and he won't able to see them. 

Which would mean that Incubus, Damien, blocked the radar Crowley won't be able to see shit. 

Just to clarify the pure terror this whole situation brought to Crowley we would like to remind you that ever since the two of them met Crowley's been saving Aziraphale's ass. Always. It was almost a rule after all these centuries. Why it was such a frustrating situation now, then? Well, because for the first time ever since they met, he wasn't able to find the angel to get his ass out of trouble. 

Crowley got on the top of the hill where Aziraphale and that filthy incubus had a picnic the other day. Partly because he needed to get away from Una to be able to even try it and partly because he had hopes about some magical footprint of that creature would still be there. Just to find it. 

He closed his eyes, breathing heavily as he concentrated on finding that bastard. But nothing, nothing has appeared. No trace of the incubus anywhere near. 

Crowley growled and tried it again, frantically searching for anything. At this point, he'd be willing to follow any lead given to him. 

"For fuck's sake! Where the heaven are you?!!" He yelled, stumbling over a rock he fell down on his knees. 

And there it was, a piece of folded paper on the place where the rock was before. Crowley frowned, taking off his glasses. He grabbed the paper and unfolded it with shaky hands. 

If anyone was near to be a witness of what happened after, they would probably talk about it at the family's dinner tonight as they'd tell the whole family about a crazy man in a suit sprinting down the hill and yelling "LIBRARY!" to his phone incoherently and at the top of his lungs.

But as usual in this part of the world, there wasn't anyone close enough around to witness that except for birds and pretty frightened doe that was just curiously walking by. 


	16. The altar

Aziraphale woke up to the feeling of cold stone beneath him, his head was spinning like crazy and it was quite hard for him to gather his thoughts. As far as he remembered he was at the meeting with the mailman and then Damien stopped by to say hi...

„Oh fuck!“ He muttered as he shot up - well tried to, his body was like glued to the stone inscribed into what felt like an altar. His blood started to rush when he realized he can not move, not even a bit. It was as if his whole body was under a big, invisible blanket, too heavy to be lifted. 

He was on the verge of panic as almost anyone would be in this situation, but he remembered what drunk Crowley once told him; (they were discussing kidnapping and for some reason the demon paid close attention to be sure Aziraphale know what to do if it ever occurs ) „if you can’t move, try to look around as much as possible, map the space, use it“.

And so he did as he was told, his eyes mapping the space around him, the only thing he was able to make up in the dim light that came from who knows where, was that it was a cave, with somewhat of a mezzanine balcony around the perimeter of it so it had to be definitely built by people. However - he didn’t see any escape door anywhere around, in the half-circle he was able to reach with his sight.

„Calm down, you will get out of this, Crowley will-„

„What? What exactly will Crowley do?“ A taunting voice interrupted his monolog.

Aziraphale’s eyes shot towards the direction where was the voice coming from, it was dark and raspy tone. It took him unbelievably long to make out the silhouette hidden in the darkness of one of the stairwells leading on the balcony.

"How exactly do you think your boyfriend in dark glasses will able to help you when he doesn't even know where are you now?" The laugh that followed this mocking question was by far the evilest sound Aziraphale had ever heard. 

The figure made a few dramatic steps to uncover his identity, leaving the angel speechless at first.

„Damien..“ he muttered, desperately trying to understand what is going on and why doesn’t Damien help him get out of here, „we need to get out of here!“

„Why? You know how hard it was to get you here and now you’d like to walk away? Why?“ By the time Damien finished his talk, he was already right next to the altar, kneeling to the angel’s face level. He caressed the angel’s cheek softly.

Aziraphale’s eyes went wide - this couldn’t be happening! How could he be so blind?! The more he stared at the tall man kneeling next to him with kind of a maniacal smile the more he was able to make up the features underneath - the red eyes, grey scaly skin, ugly fangs... It was there. Hidden in a good looking body, but still there.

„You... You are an..“

„A what? What am I, love?“ Damien caressed the angel’s cheek once more with a giggle of a lover, not a potential kidnapper.

Aziraphale pulled away as much as possible in his immobile state, which wasn’t something you’d like to see in your potential ‚love interest‘. Damien laughed and stood up, walking somewhere behind Aziraphale’s head.

„Normally, I wouldn’t be so chill if anyone pulled away from me like you just did,“ between those words, Aziraphale heard faint gurgle and clinking of metal, „but with you, it doesn’t matter that much as you’ll be mine, love, within minutes.“

This startled the angel, what exactly was that supposed to mean? There is no way he’d fall for an incubus. At least not as long as he already has another demon in his heart

(No matter what meaning we would give to it, it was certain that the angel cared for one demon already, so we won’t speculate further about what the exact meaning of it was as much as we normally would

„I doubt that, dear,“ Aziraphale said, and even he was surprised when his voice came out steady and calm.

Damien came back to the angel’s vision and started laughing like crazy, „you really think there’s a way out of this for you, right?“

„Well, I stood face to face with the antichrist and the devil himself, you don’t scare me,“ Aziraphale smiled politely, trying to buy some time before something eventually help him get out of here... better, someone.

Where the hell is Crowley???

„Antichrist, you say? The kid? Seriously?“ Damien almost fell as hard as he was laughing at what the angel had just said.

Aziraphale made a mental note to not bring up antichrist around demons and angels and all that know who he is because it obviously (and also logically) doesn’t have any effect whatsoever.

„What is it? No more bullshit?“ Damien dramatically placed a hand behind his ear, as if he was trying to hear better, „great, so we can start finally.“

Aziraphale had no fucking clue what is about to happen but he knew he wouldn’t like any bit of it. He was thinking hard, how to escape this situation - he didn’t have any ropes that tied him to a spot, as far as he could tell. He also could feel and physically sense the magical energy holding him in place so he decided to count on that and try to miracle himself away.

„Oh, really, love? Do you really think I would let you escape just like that?“ Damien’s voice sounded right next to the angel’s ear, causing him to shift uncomfortably.

„No no, you, my love, will submit to me, willingly or..“ he left the sentence unfinished for effect before he licked Aziraphale’s cheek.

„What is wrong with you? Egrhr, I could be allergic!“ Aziraphale snapped the first thing that came to his mind after he felt that cold wet tongue in contact with his skin. It was as if someone placed a frog on the side of his face - nothing pleasant, unlike snakes.

„Shut up now!“ Damien shouted, incredibly rough this time before he started chanting some barely understandable words.

To Aziraphale, it sounded like Latin. At first, it was just Damien’s husky voice, but after a while, the angel was able to make out of that chanting two other voices. He felt a sting of recognition over those voices, even tho he couldn’t remember whose voices it was - he knew them.

Sooner than one would expect, the chanting got from whispering to full-on screaming. Aziraphale felt as if it was coming to him from every direction possible. Mysterious mist crawled out of the darkness and was now making it’s way directly to the altar.

The dizziness came right after, his head started to spin as his eyes rolled to the back of his head.

The last thing that went through Aziraphale’s restless mind before the mist swallowed him was crazily enough _Somebody to Love by Queen._


	17. The inbetween world

The peaceful and constant run of life in the village a few miles to the East was interrupted by a man in black suit insanely breaking into a closed library in the center of the village. Some of the passers-by actually thought about stopping him, but it took one look into his insane eyes behind black sunglasses to drop it and go with their life as they know it. After all, who would want to get murdered on Friday?

Crowley, on the other hand, didn’t pay any attention to all the passers-by as he was more concerned with the angel’s well being and where the fuck is he. After some frantic searching around the library, he kicked out the door to the backroom to hear really faint chanting somewhere behind the wall.

„What the fuck?“ he mumbled, the chanting got more intense with each second he just stood behind the wall, trying to locate it.

As it grew even more intense Crowley grabbed the sculpture on the desk and started to hit the wall in an attempt to breakthrough. At first, it seemed impossible, but after what felt like infinity he finally got through. The chanting was now louder than ever. Crowley kicked off the rest of the wall just to see a cave-like space behind it.

Now he was able to make out the words - it was Latin, but the oldest version of it. The one no one uses anymore.. besides fucks who think they can just take the angel like that!

Only slowly he got to the railing of the mezzanine balcony, doing his best not to make a sound. He looked down and there they were, the fuckerish incubus, Aziraphale and…

„Beelzebub!“ Crowley growled loud enough for them to hear as he simply jumped from the balcony to land one floor down as if nothing happened.

„Crowley.“ The demon sighed, it seemed as if he expected him sooner or later.

„And..ngk-you,“ Crowley added this upon looking at the last of them, the stupid arrogant angel that always treated Aziraphale like shit.

„What do you mean 'ngk you'?!“ The angel snapped, pointing to himself, „Gabriel? Doesn’t that sound familiar?“ He even circled around his face with his fingers.

„Uh.Eh...Not really. Crowley shrugged his shoulders, secretly enjoying the annoyance he brought to this narcissistic piece of- oh, right, the angel!

„Stop that, now!“ He shouted on Damien who was still chanting in Latin, he was the only one who didn’t stop when Crowley jumped in.

„You can’t stop him,“ Beelzebub said, almost bored with the whole situation, because in his eyes it felt as if it was a loop of them trying to maintain the world’s balance while this dumbass too sensitive demon has to always jump in and ruin it, in co-op with the other dumbass, the angel. How he hated angels…

Crowley just glanced at Beelzebub and then tried to sprint to the altar, to be immediately blocked by the two of them. He fought them but without his powers, he wasn’t really that physically strong so this fight was lost already.

His sight traveled to the angel on the altar, there was mist circling around him, he seemed distressed as if he was just having a horrible nightmare.

„Angel! Wake up!“ Crowley yelled, trying his best to sneak past the two of them, but they were holding him too tight, making him kneel under their force.

No reaction, Aziraphale didn’t even flinch. Nothing.

„AZIRAPHALE YOU IDIOT! WAKE UP!!“

„It’s pointless, he can’t hear you,“ Beelzebub tightened his grip around Crowley’s wrist, it seemed as if he was putting up with a kid with attitude once again instead of a full-grown demon.

„Yes! Because our buddy Damien here is taking his soul right now!“ Gabriel snickered, getting two annoyed glances at once. „What? You guys can have a cool moment but I can’t?!“ He then added, almost breaking Crowley’s arm as if it was his fault.

„Crowley now!“

That was all Crowley waited for, he winked at Una who stood at the balcony with the rest of the group and concentrated all his power into getting the angel and him into this ‚between-world‘.

He closed his eyes and after a painful twitch of his gut, he reopened them again just to see nothing but endless white all around him. And... Aziraphale.

The angel was just standing there and stretching his wings the way people stretch their arms after a good nap. He was beautiful.

„Angel!“

Before he could react in any way Crowley hugged him tightly, leaving the poor soul confused yet delighted.

„Hello, dear, did we win?“ Aziraphale murmured with a cute smile, touching Crowley’s wings as if he was still dreaming.

„Oh fuck.. right, you are unconscious..“ Crowley mumbled more to himself than to the angel when he realized that the reason for the angel’s stoned like behavior is as simple as possible; the angel was unconscious in the real world, which means that in this world it is only his subconsciousness.

„Youuu have such beautiful wings, my dear!“ Aziraphale giggled, his hands traveling up Crowley’s chest. Who had quite a hard time to focus thanks to this.

„Look,“ he snapped with concern, grabbing the angel’s hands into his (mainly to stop him from this flirtatious touching), „We don’t have much time, so listen to me closely, okay?“

Aziraphale just giggled again, nodding his head.

„I need you to remember me.“

„What? How would I ever forget you?“ Aziraphale laughed, this was absurd.

„Eh... You won’t remember this conversation, not even that you were here and once you wake up you won’t remember anything from your life.“

Crowley got out of himself, trying to keep the angel’s unsteady hands in his, which wasn’t that easy as it turned out that Aziraphale’s subconsciousness is a real flirtatious slut.

The angel watched him for a second as if he was trying to decide whether or not he’s being serious. Then he burst with laughter.

„You won’t remember because a bloody incubus is sucking your soul out of your body right now!“ Crowley shouted, the frustration overpowering him by that point. The angel stopped laughing right away as he threw a hurt face at him.

„Uhhh…listen, I know you don’t understand what is going on, but we’ve been friends for over 6 000 years and I will protect you. Always-“

„Always?“ The faint whimper that escaped Aziraphale’s lips together with the puppy eyes of hope would normally be enough to melt the demon’s heart.

„Yes, Always. But in order for me to protect you, you have to remember me once you wake up.“

By this point Crowley felt something watery in his eyes, if we didn’t know better we’d say he was crying - but it sure was just something in his eye. Dirt or something. Dirt is pretty common in sterile places like this one, y’know?

„Oh, I would never forget you, my dear,“ The angel shook his head, smiling in an innocent and determined way of someone not aware of the danger that is about to hit them.

Crowley bit his lip in purpose to stop the increasing pain in his chest, as he was standing there, watching the angel smiling at him like a lovely idiot he couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if he lost him. What if he couldn’t talk to him anymore? Or watch him eat? Or argue with him? Or.. see him smile?

There was always something about his smile… The way he smiled; the way butterflies seemed to escape from the pit of his stomach and the way the sun had somehow toppled down from the sky and made a home right there in his heart any time he smiled.

He had the kind of smile that made you feel happy to be alive and just that little bit more human.

„Are you alright, Crowley?“ The angel asked, furrowing his eyebrows with concern as if it wasn't him who's in danger right now.

„I..ngk…Ugh, yes, I will start the time now, are you ready?“

Aziraphale nodded his head, giving Crowley one last cute smile.

„Just, _remember me_ , okay?“ Crowley stressed, placing his hands on the angel’s head, cupping his face.

„I-„ before Aziraphale got the chance to finish his sentence they were back in the cave. Crowley shook his head to adjust to the reality, noticing that his group had been captured as well, Una obviously didn’t know how to turn the blocking back on. Fuck.

All of them were screaming at each other, while Crowley quickly found angel, still laying on the altar. He shivered and then slowly sat up.

Damien shot a triumphal smile on Crowley, who was still kneeling under the power of those two idiots.

„Angel! Here!“ Crowley called almost desperately, but when Aziraphale turned to him, Crowley was met with the most confused sight ever.

This ain’t good.


	18. Una !

The cave was quite an enormous space, with all these balconies and hidden corners and all together space that went higher than one would expect. Yet it wasn't big enough to muffle the raw scream of the demon who just possibly lost all he had left. 

As he was staring wide-eyed into the eyes of the angel he knew that whatever pathetic idea of life he lived had just ended with a single look of pure confusion the angel gave him. 

At first, he was just shocked, he never even for a second believed God would do this to him. Yes, of course, She forbid him from Heaven and made sure that Hell was a real hell for him. However, he firmly believed that whatever punishment he shall get, this wasn't an option. 

Couldn't be. She wouldn't do this to him.

He was so shocked at that moment he didn't even realize that our boi Damien soul sucker, transformed from his human form into something bigger, uglier and definitely demonic. But the arrogant smile was still plastered on his reddish face. The creature stretched its arms as if it just woke up from a refreshing nap.

Crowley began to scream, he screamed for quite a while, trapped under the hands of two worst creatures he had ever met, forced to watch how the only bloody thing that made his life less shitty is being eaten by a demonic prostitute. 

The scream was so vicious and raw that even Beelzebub's cold heart (if we are willing to believe he actually has one) could understand the loss. He is a demon, correct, he is a bastard, correct, but this was his former demon fellow being so broken. If Beelzebub was less of hell himself he'd probably let go off Crowley fighting his best to get out of their grip. But come on, it's Beelzebub who we speak about.

Damien, on the other hand, got closer and looked down at the confused but definitely frightened angel. He held up his hand. Long hideous claws like five knives got dangerously close to Aziraphale's face.

Crowley's scream only got crazier by each second that passed. The pure helplessness was killing him. Because usually when something went wrong, he could always say he can do something about it and if it was about the angel, he always did something. But right now, he couldn't do shit. He couldn't even move. All he could do was watch and scream. 

Gabriel for some reason started to laugh. But no evil laughter. The thing about his laughter, that sends a chill down the spine of some of us, is the fact he laughed like he was just having a lovely chat about the weather. Short, crazy laughter. The one you hear from lawyers, for example.

It was such a strange situation, just imagine walking up on this; two people in somewhat suiting clothing holds down an insane man who's screaming at a confused guy and a demonic creature while three other people cheer for them from the balcony. Not your typical Friday, right? 

Crowley was so deep in his own misery he almost missed it if he wasn’t watching the angel he would probably miss it all together… Aziraphale was staring right at him, with a face of a frightened puppy. But it was there, for a split of a second his face lightened up with recognition - almost as if you were on a party where you don’t know a single soul and suddenly met a friend.

„He remembers me!“ Crowley shouted and stood up on one leg to be pushed right back down. His head hitting the cold stone underneath him. The grip around his wrists and on his shoulders tightened once again, but there was nothing that would stop Crowley from getting to the angel, once he had a hope he might actually remember him.

„Shut up! He doesn’t remember you, he doesn’t even know who he is,“ Gabriel snickered, but he exchanged a worried glance with Beelzebub, it was slowly but surely getting out of their hands once again.

„AZIRAPHALE! ANGEL! SAY YOU REMEMBER ME!“ Crowley cried out with surprisingly rough voice.

The world stopped. Everything slowed down and with held breath waited for the angel’s response. Because if there was even the tiniest chance that the angel might know who Crowley is everything would change. Everything would go differently.

Aziraphale opened his mouth to either confirm or deny the possibility to be quickly enough interrupted by a punch that sent him back down on the altar. Damien who threw it was breathing heavily and laughing as if it was a joke.

Crowley only screamed, unable to process it or say a word. Aziraphale was obviously unconscious again. That’s bad.

„Crowley!“ Anathema yelled from the balcony entry as they still didn’t find a way down. It sounded so strange and full of fear, which wasn’t really Anathema’s thing, that everyone turned to her.

What they saw upon turning is hard to describe as it was such a crazy encounter. Una, the average kid, the sweet little potato, was levitating above the balcony shining like a lamp. The higher she was the brighter she got. The light was coming from every pore of her skin, from her eyes, mouth, hair, you name it. Her movements resembled the underwater dances. Newt even held up his hand in an attempt to reach for her, but it was too late. Una was already flowing towards the altar.

Out of nowhere, a white noise came, it was growing as well as the shining, it was the sound we usually picture Universe sounds like - like an air-conditioning on full power. Soon enough it filled the cave and everyone in it.

Crazily enough, Crowley felt peace, such a peace, and love he hasn’t felt in a long time. Acceptance and welcoming embrace. It was as if Heavens opened his gates to him for She hugged him like a lost son who finally came home. The feeling couldn't be described by words. He just felt..calm.

„THAT'S ENOUGH!“ Una spoke with a voice that was everything but hers, it sounded as if a bunch of people with different tones spoke at the same time. Otherworldly voice.

„Una?“ Anathema asked, pushing her glasses back at the bridge of her nose.

Una snapped at her, smiling right away before she turned back to what was happening down there. She spread her arms wide, embracing the light coming out of her. There wasn’t a place in that cave she wouldn’t reach with that light.

Crowley actually couldn’t believe the fragile tiny body of Una would survive this, but there she was, floating above them, getting brighter with each second that passes.

She closed her eyes for a moment as if she was waiting for the transformation to finish. When she reopened them, the rays of light from her eyes were almost painful to look at. She looked down, scanning all of them like a roentgen before she spoke.

„BEHOLD CREATURES FOR I AM THE BEGINING AND THE END OF EVERYTHING, I AM THE CREATOR, THE MOTHER OF ALL LIVING AND DEAD, I AM THE JUDGE, JURY AND THE HANGMAN! I AM THE DUST OF LONG DEAD STARS AND CRADLE OF NEWBORN GALAXIES! I’VE BEEN HERE LONG BEFORE YOU ALL WERE CREATED AND I WILL BE HERE EVEN LONG AFTER YOU ALL ARE GONE,“ she spoke with a voice that didn’t allow objections and Crowley suddenly wasn’t that surprised over the fact she made him confess to her before. This was pretty impressive.

„FOR I AM THE UNIVERSE!“


	19. THE JUDGEMENT

If anyone paid closer attention to the people on the balcony someone would surely hear Newt's confused voice saying "but… But the Universe is not a person." 

The only one that heard him, was Anathema, who for once had to agree with him - Universe indeed is not a person. But that was least of their current concerns. 

To say everyone else down there was left speechless wouldn’t be enough. It was dead silence there, except for the sound that seemed to come from Una. It sounded like the ocean’s waves crushing to the fjords, like the start of an airplane, like the neverending burning of a star. Weirdly enough, each one of them recognized the sound. Deep down they all knew it. This was the sound that guided them through all those years. Subtle, almost under the hearing level. Always there. That was maybe one of the reasons why no one said a word.

Luckily for them Una, or Universe or whatever, obviously wasn't waiting for any answers whatsoever because she continued; "I'VE BEEN WATCHING WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE FOR CENTURIES. EVER SINCE YOUR GOD," she pointed at Gabriel, "AND YOUR MASTER," now she pointed to Beelzebub, "DECIDED TO PLAY THEIR GAMES WITH THE WORLD I CREATED!" 

"Well, technically I was just following and order so…" Gabriel smiled like a ray of sunshine, however, Una didn't have any of his crap. 

"SILENCE! I LET YOU ALL DO WHATEVER YOU WANTED AND YOU BASICALLY TURNED THE WHOLE WORLD INTO YOUR PLAYGROUND!" Now she was like a mom yelling at her misbehaved kids. And they pretty much looked like that - Gabriel looked almost hurt while Beelzebub avoided eye contact.

What about Damien, you ask? Well, let's say that face to face with such a power he froze, unable to process any of that. One would say he’d make a pretty creepy statue.

"WHEN YOU CAME UP WITH THE ARMAGEDDON I LET YOU! I NEVER ONCE HAD TO STEP IN AND MAKE THINGS RIGHT! OVER 5 BILLIONS OF YEARS!!! UNTIL YOU DECIDED THAT YOU WANT REVENGE. ARE YOU SERIOUSLY THAT PISSED THAT THEY STOPPED THE APOCALYPSE?" 

Gabriel took a step forward with a smarmy smile, "Ugg, well, let me explain-" 

"NO! NOT YOU! I CAN SENSE LIES FROM YOU!" Una snapped, relocating her sight on Beelzebub, who let go of Crowley and now was just standing there, unsure of what to do. 

"YOU! TELL ME WHY IS ALL THIS HAPPENING? WHAT IS THE PURPOSE?" 

"We are just listening to orders," Beelzebub said, voice plain and numb. It was the truth. 

"AND?" 

"And this is a revenge for the Armageddon’t," He then sighed as if he expected it. 

While the two of them had a hard time explaining their motives, Crowley quickly stood up and adjusted his jacket. 

If he wasn't so fascinated with the whole scene he'd run to Aziraphale to wake him up, make sure he's alright and all that. But frankly, that could wait. This was the most selfish thing he had ever thought of but logically speaking; if the angel really didn't remember him, better to find out later than sooner. At least Crowley firmly believed that. 

He shot a quick glance to make sure that Damien's still frozen and Aziraphale still unconscious - yup, that would be accurate - and then focused back on the conversation. 

"I HEARD ENOUGH," Una held up her tiny hand. The light shining from her was brighter than it was a moment ago, her skin was no more the usual pale tone, it shinned like a freaking beacon. Anyone sane would say she can not survive that. A Universe trapped in a human body? Not only would the body explode but also the knowledge of things past, current and future would literally fry the girl’s brain. Yet here she was, slowly dropping to the floor like a gigantic disco ball.

„NOW I WILL MAKE THE JUDGEMENT.“

„Yeah... Ug. I’m sorry, Universe?“ Crowley spoke for the first time in a while and when everyone turned to him, he smiled at them his usual way, „can we maybe speed it up? I know time means nothing to you and I respect that, believe me, I do, but..“ The worried sight he threw at still unconscious Aziraphale was eloquent enough.

At first, it seemed that Una will rip his head off, but then her face lit up with a soft smile. She turned back to Beelzebub and Gabriel.

„I AM TIRED OF BOTH OF YOU. DISSAPOINTED IN YOUR BEHAVIOR AND I WILL MAKE FURTHER CONSEQUENCES OUT OF THIS, BUT FOR NOW - GET OUT OF MY SIGHT AND NEVER ATTEMPT TO GET CLOSE THIS DEMON OR THAT ANGEL EVER AGAIN!“

If Crowley wasn’t grateful she saved their asses he’d probably say something along the lines of how cheesy it sounded, but since she practically saved them, he kept his mouth shut. Not to mention that he’ll probably need the help of the Universe once again - because of Aziraphale.

Gabriel sighed with relief it seemed as if he was about to say something to appeal more likable to this Universe but a single glance from her stopped right away. So he just fixed his collar and with the last look at Beelzebub vanished. 

Beelzebub, on the other hand, turned to Crowley and nodded him goodbye, then he snapped his fingers and both - he and Damien were gone. 

A faint whimper coming from the altar forced Crowley to almost break his neck upon turning so violently to the angel. 

Aziraphale was only slowly sitting up, holding his head in his hands as if he had a bad headache. He was mumbling something so incoherently no one could quite understand him. But if we had to guess we’d say it was something about crepes! Or maybe not…

„Aziraphale!“ Crowley ran to him, leaning his hands on the altar for stability, peering the angel for any sign of injury - both physical and mental. 

The angel smiled at him dizzily, he obviously had a hard time waking up. And who could blame him? If you got such a punch from a demon three times bigger you’d be dead right away so be patient! 

„Do you remember me?“ Crowley asked, face screwed with worries. 

Aziraphale scanned his face, looking for anything familiar, at the end he just smiled again and rested his head on Crowley’s shoulder. 

„This is not a good time for a nap, angel,“ Crowley sighed, but carefully placed a hand on the angel’s back, caressing him softly, „I need to know if you remember me.“ 

Aziraphale looked up again and shook his head in the most innocent way possible. Crowley who never once believed it was possible felt his heart breaking. His eyes went wide and he felt his breath got shorter and more rapid. The more he looked to the angel’s innocent eyes, the more hopeless he felt. In the end, his shaky legs gave up on him and he collapsed on the altar next to this dumb angel who obviously didn’t remember him. 

The angel, confused as to why is this young man on the verge of tears sitting right next to him, held up his hand and touched his shoulder, „hey… I don’t know who you are, but I know you, I know I do, my dear,“ he murmured softly. 

Crowley’s face contorted, his trembling hands reaching for some kind of support, any kind literally. Out of nowhere, he shot up, heading straight to Una, his walk even sassier than usual. 

„Can’t you do something?“ He snapped at her as if she could cure people left and right. The sad shake of her head was enough for Crowley to lose his control. He threw his arms in the air, as he did a circle around her.

„DAMNIT! You,“ he pointed a finger at her, „are an UNIVERSE for Hell’s sake! Do something,“ the last sentence was hissed at her in Crowley’s usual distressed snake manner. 

For a brief moment, no one said a thing, but then Una nodded her head firmly, frowning as if she was thinking about something stressing. 

„I WILL TRY IT, BUT I CAN’T PROMISE YOU ANYTHING.“ 

„Just do it!“ 

While Crowley was walking around, clenching his fists, Una came up to Aziraphale, who still sat on the altar, wondering what is going on. 

„CAN I?“ She asked, holding up a hand in the level of his temple. The angel just nodded his head. Upon her touch, they both exploded with light so bright no one could see through. The sound of the ocean or whatever that was got so loud that it was almost painful to listen to it. However, it was over as quickly as it started before. 

When they appeared again, no one said a word. Everyone was waiting for Aziraphale to say something. The angel opened his mouth to say something but then just smiled the way only angels as pure as him do. 


	20. The end

Aziraphale looked around with a bit of a sleepy sight, the first thing he saw after the bright light was gone was Una’s worried face - but she was different - glowing. Like, literally glowing - she was shinning like a star.

Then he looked around, searching for who knows who - and there he was, standing there, watching the whole scene as if they were performing surgery on Aziraphale, worried sight not so efficiently hidden behind dark glasses.

„Crowley,“ He sighed with relief, breaking into a soft smile. At first, he couldn’t quite understand why did Crowley almost run up to him, hugging him tight - after all Crowley wasn’t really a fan of PDAs and such stuff. But he had to admit that being hidden in his arms, feeling small and secure was like million bucks.

„Angel, never ever scare me like this again,“ Crowley said after he pulled him away just for the arm length. His eyes wide, and even tho he tried his best, still Aziraphale could feel him trembling slightly.

„I can’t promise that my dear,“ Aziraphale shrugged his shoulders and cracked a peal of laughter after the horrified and annoyed glance he received from the demon. Crowley then pulled him into yet another long hug.

It was such an intense, intimate moment for both of them and we wish we could say they stayed like that forever, but there were other things - more important at the moment - to deal with, for example, the Universe thingy.

After Crowley finally let go of Aziraphale it didn’t take too long to explain Aziraphale what had happened as he was intelligent enough to understand everything without them having to describe every event twice.

„…but what happened to Una? Is she alright?“ Aziraphale asked the one question, everyone wanted to ask, not knowing this will set an avalanche of questions poor Universe will have to answer.

The sight of them all turned to Una, who by this point was glowing only faintly, like one of the garden lights. She sighed and sat down in the air, crossing her legs.

„SHE IS STILL HERE AND ONCE I AM GONE SHE WILL RETURN BACK TO BE THE MAIN AND ONLY CONSCIOUSNESS IN THIS BODY. SHE IS ALRIGHT.“

„And what about those prophecies? That was you as well?“ Anathema asked, holding Newt by the hand. Yes, Una ‚miracled‘ them to the rest of the group down.

„YES, THAT WAS ME AS WELL. BECAUSE I COULD NOT INTERFERE INTO THE NATURAL PROCESS OF EVENTS UP UNTIL THE POINT OF THE FINAL DECISION.“

„How is this even possible?“ Now, it was Newt’s turn to panic. Which he did with a cute awkwardness as always.

„UNA IS A SPECIAL CHILD AND WAS DESTINED TO THIS MOMENT AND PURPOSE WAY BEFORE SHE WAS EVEN BORN…“ Una stopped for a moment as if she was thinking about it and then added: „THIS WAS HER DESTINY EVER SINCE I WAS CREATED.“

„Why her? She’s just a kid,“ Crowley frowned, he made it seem casual, but Aziraphale, who totally ‚unintentionally‘, stood right beside him, their shoulders touching, stole a look at him smiling knowingly. Crowley was a bit sensitive when it came to kids, y’know?

„SHE MAY BE A KID BODILY LEVELS BUT HER SOUL IS THE OLDEST SOUL OF HUMAN RACE, HER MENTAL STRENGTH SHE IS NOT AWARE OF TOGETHER WITH THE KIND HEART MADE HER THE ONLY POSSIBLE CHOICE.“

„Oh… So you just used her, great,“ Crowley nodded his head sarcastically to be quickly enough stopped by the angel placing a calming hand on his arm. Crowley turned to him to see the cute smile of his, but it didn’t make the whole situation seem less fucked up… Okay, maybe a bit.

„NO. SHE WILL NOT WALK OUT OF THIS WITH BARE HANDS. BEFORE I LEAVE I HAVE THE OBLIGATION TO INFORM YOU THAT SHE WILL HAVE A SNIPPET OF ME, THE UNIVERSE, ALWAYS IN HER SOUL. SHE WILL HAVE GREAT POWER, GREATER THAN YOU KNOW.“ The light was now almost gone.

„That is just great.“ This time Crowley’s sarcastic note was met with Aziraphale’s non agreeing glance, Crowley just shrugged his shoulders, rolling his eyes behind the dark glasses.

„I HAVE TO GO NOW, PLEASE TAKE CARE OF THIS CHILD, UNTIL SHE IS REUNIED WITH ME AFTER HER JOURNEY IS FINISHED.“

„Sure we will! Thank you for helping us!“ Aziraphale chirped, but before he finished, the light was gone and Una fell down on the cold hard ground. She was unconscious.

„Oh, another unconsciousness... It's becoming a habit around here, don’t ya think?“ Crowley growled already picking Una up on his arms to carry her out.

If Aziraphale wanted to provoke a fight he’d point out how Crowley tries always so hard to appear as everyone bothers him beyond possible but anytime something like this happens he’s the first one to come to the rescue or help. But he didn’t. He just stood there, watching the demon carrying out Una, sighing dramatically all the way. He smiled, placing hands on his heart as if this was too much to handle.

„Angel, come on,“ Crowley called after him, voice annoyed, yet soft and Aziraphale didn’t wait for a second to join them.

* approximately one exhausting trip back to London later, in a restaurant *

„Well, we should probably get going so we can get home before the traffic gets crazy,“ Newt said, putting down empty bowl where minutes ago was ice cream.

Anathema smiled, stood up and hugged all three of them sitting in the booth. With huge objections from Crowley, obviously.

„Take care,“ Newt shook their hands and with that both of them walked out of the restaurant, leaving Una with them as she expressed during the trip back that she will get home by herself.

„Hah... I should probably go too,“ she chuckled, her eyes scanning the barely touched ïce cream in her bowl, half of it was melted already.

Crowley and Aziraphale exchanged a glance - The angel’s eyes were pointing to Una and back to the demon, while Crowley just shook his head furiously. After a moment he sighed in annoyance.

„Una, you have nowhere to go, have ya?“

She looked up to meet their expecting gaze, she was beyond shocked and blushing. Her fingers drumming on the table.

„Of course I have-„

„Una, dear,“ The way Aziraphale smiled at her made her feel even worse, she’ll have to admit it, whether she wants it or not.

„No… I’ve been in care ever since I remember and at 18 they kicked me out as they do and now I am homeless,“ she sighed, rolling her eyes as the saddest smile ran over her lips.

Another eloquent look was exchanged between the two of them, while Una kept her eyes on the table.

„Una, dear?“ Aziraphale spoke up, voice soft as velvet, making her look up at him right away.

„You can stay here, with us. My bookshop has a flat above it, you can live there until we find you a job and your own place to live.“

„I’d like to know where will you live then,“ Crowley mumbled, looking out of the window, he seemed so annoyed with the current state of things.

„At your place, naturally,“ Aziraphale smiled like a ray of sunshine making two pairs of eyes snap to his direction right away.

„I..Ngk-Uh... I mean, whatever,“ Crowley threw his arms in a ‚idc‘ gesture, but the angel didn’t miss the slight smile that appeared on Crowley’s face.

„Guys… I can’t accept it, but thank you.“

„Why wouldn’t you, darling?“

„I… It’s wrong.“

„No it isn’t, accept the help when it’s offered, stupid.“ Crowley snapped at her harder than he wanted, he was just still in awe from angel’s previous statement.

After a moment Una just nodded her head and giggled like a child she basically still was, at least in their eyes.

„Thank you, guys!“ She threw herself at them, kicking over her ice cream bowl, but she didn’t care as she was hugging two of the best, the most oblivious gay foster parents she could ask for.

„Oh dear, oh dear!“

„Get off of me!“

Strangely enough, both of those sentences were said in the same, happy and kinda touched way. And so they stayed like that, oblivious to busy London people starring down at them because something about this felt like home. It was indeed great to be back in London with those you weirdly enough care about more than possible.

That’s how this story ends, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did and don’t be sad it’s over, because as we all know - from the death of one story arises another one… Better, stronger, flaming… Wait, that is Phoenix, isn’t it? Hmm, anyway, believe in miracles and look out for all the snakes around, you never know if the massive venomous snake hidden in your toilet bowl isn’t Crowley after all. As well as treat books with the love you want to be treated because if not Aziraphale will manifest in your house to take every book from you and put it in his Bookshop where no one can buy a book.

And that would be all, goodbye, friends until we meet again!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys, 
> 
> I can't believe it's really over! This is my first fanfic of 20 000+ words and I am so so so proud of it! I mean, I cried a little when I realized that this is the last chapter. I know I am pathetic, but with all the support I recieved from you guys (I honestly did not expect it at all) one can be a little too sensitive, right? 
> 
> Anyway I hope you had fun and enjoyed reading of this FF and I also hope we'll meet again when I post another FF, which should be sooner than y'all think so stay tuned lol! 
> 
> Thank you again and see ya!


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